Diamond Tears
by Ramowen
Summary: With the help of Hoggle, Sarah is able to come and go as she pleases into The Underground. But Jareth is watching her.... Romance, humour, adventure and mystery.
1. Diamond Tears: Prologue

Not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises.. Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness.  
  
Enjoy  
  
Ramowen  
  
  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
Prologue  
  
  
"Now this" Hoggle said, "is where the unicorns come to drink when the sun goes down."  
  
"Aw Hoggle- it's so beautiful!"  
  
"Yes, but you gotta be quiet now! They won't be coming when they sees you. That is- they won't come to me! They just might like you, though."  
  
"Why?" Sarah asked innocently, crouching low in the underbrush at edge of the enchanted clearing. The small patch of grass led to a clear fast flowing brook, fed by the small waterfall from the tall rock at her right.  
  
Fairies danced above the water, a gnome scurried away on the other side of the river carrying a basked filled with firewood.  
The day-creatures of the Goblin Realm quietly settled down for the coming twilight and dark. The night-creatures not yet stirring.  
  
"Well- let's just say that- it's a long story really"  
  
"Hoggle!"  
  
"I can't tell you about such things. Your mother should!"  
Sarah chuckled. "You know, I think your blushing"  
  
"Am not."  
  
"Yes you are."  
  
"No! Am not!"  
  
"Yes you are" teased Sarah in singsong. "And I don't think my -stepmother- would have anything -interesting- to say about the Kingdom."  
  
Hoggle rolled his eyes and shrugged his shoulders. He was here to please his human friend the best way he could, and that was to show her every lovely nook and cranny of the Goblin kingdom and the Labyrinth that he knew. And taking great care in King Jareth not finding out the girl occasionally returned to her friends and his realm.   
  
"Hush girl- here they come!"  
  
It was a futile attempt, of course. The King was -one- with the land, more than any of its inhabitants could ever realize. More perhaps even than he knew himself. Every time His Majesties uninvited guest crossed the threshold, a chill ran up his spine. He would settle himself in the large open window in the high tower from which he had the widest view. But to the outside world Jareth would not look. He would take out his little crystals of magic, twirl them between his long elegant fingers and watch as they lit up and showed him where she went, this time.  
  
"Silly girl," he mumbled, "you should know from all your reading unicorns are attracted to the smell of a lovely virgin."  
  
A low mist appeared from the forest, carrying a sweet scent and the sound of hoof-beats. Sarah held her breath while the mist thickened in several places and a large white stallion appeared. The proud animal held his head high, the twirled bone of it's elegant single horn clearly visible for the hiding young woman. The magnificent animal scraped its hoof and a mere and two fillies appeared. The young animals darted towards the water and splashed it with their legs like little children. The mere rubbed her shoulder against her mate. They watched with large brown gentle eyes.  
  
When the elder animals waded into the stream to sip the water, Sarah crept a little forward to get a better view. A branch snapped and all animals looked up sharply. Sarah could have disappeared into the ground.   
  
"Oh no- please don't go" she muttered.  
  
The father seemed to sniff the wind. He shook his large head as in disbelief and rubbed his nose against his ladies. She sniffed and made soft noises. For a moment it looked as if the enchanted family would retreat.  
  
Yet, after only the slightest of hesitations, the apparent twins stormed Sarah's and Hoggle's little hideout and searched until the two were found.  
  
Jareth in his high tower smiled at the little scene in his round crystal. He watched how the high spirited earth-girl hesitantly reached out for the fillies, how she got Hoggle to pet them. How she tried to feed their parents some grass.  
  
Darkness fell across his land and he shape-shifted to his ghostly owl form to fly to the glade. The child and the dwarf long gone, he could still feel the exotic presence of the mortal child linger. Or was it? Was it only memories that trapped him here? Such an odd thought really- exotic presence lingering- being trapped. He had to shake himself free from this inactivity. Some amusement- some little adventure? It was a long time hence since he had one of those. He could not allow himself that. King of all he could perceive- bound to the land.  
Mere amusement then. At the cost of the child of course. That would only be fair- she was the one bringing him this predicament!  
  
Jareth grinned at the prospect. He had to plan now, had to be careful. What dangers could he lay in the child's way? None she would -not- be able to solve- that would ruin it. So what would be -fun-?  
  
  
A fickle fairy flew away to tell her mistress the plans of the master.   
The witch still mad for stolen land brew potions to a cancer  
A cursed sword and tears unshed, an arrow and a dagger  
Ah my King, your reign has been for the smile of a mortal maiden  
For the tears of a mortal maiden  
  
  



	2. The Beginning Of A Little Adventure

Not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy of the movie). Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness.  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
Chapter One: The beginning of a little adventure  
  
Yesyesyesyesyesyes!  
She, Karen, and dad had taken Toby to visit the -other- grandmother. The kind widow who fed Sarah soft drinks and hard apple-pie. Self baked my dear, please take, there is more.  
She always seemed to be amazed how clever Toby was and how handsome Toby was and how Toby would become something someday. From that point proceeding to Sarah's grades and how she should do better.  
  
Right.  
  
So, in order to do better, Sarah had received permission to stay at home and study. Sarah had the whole afternoon to call upon the 'Goblin Gang' and to be up, up and away for five whole hours, what meant an easy ten in the Underground.  
  
Yes!  
  
Sarah sat down before her mirror and concentrated. Thinking of Hoggle and Ludo and Sir Didymus and all the others. She thought of lush forests and barren deserts. Of star filled skies and dreams come true. And she said the magic words.  
  
"Sometimes, for no reason at all, I need you. And I need you right now!"  
  
For a moment- nothing. Then the image changed and she saw Ludo, sitting on his favorite rock against an ancient tree. Snoring loudly in the mid-morning sun. Lights danced around the leaves of the lush forest. A scene so filled with peace and tranquility- Sarah asked herself if the large brown bag at Ludo's side meant that he had taken the heads of the red Fire creatures and would only give them back in return of an undisturbed nap. Again.  
Sarah laughed, it was quite a while she had visited the kindhearted beast. The mirror's glass started to ripple, become liquid mercury- a mere vale between this world and the other.  
Sarah climbed the desk, touched the glass and shivered as her fingers passed through cold nothingness. Quickly she crawled through.  
  
Jareth felt it, that by now familiar cold running up and down his spine. The chill that alerted him of his uninvited yet not completely unwelcome visitor. He sat up straight and smiled. It was time and he put down his work. Kingdom of chaos or no, some ruling had to be done here occasionally- even here there were taxes to collect, courts of justice to be held, dragons to be slain. All bringing with them a mighty load of paperwork which Jareth used to despise wholeheartedly. Since about a year the work had brought him tranquillity, distraction.  
The King had his office in one of the tall towers, right above his private rooms. No one in his right mind would trouble him here and break his concentration. Except of course that heads carved in his old oak bureau kept chatting to each other and only the threat to reduce them to firewood would make them shut up. Not that Jareth ever would do something so drastic- the bureau had been in his family for generations and was one of his most trusted advisors.   
Since he never allowed anyone up here, the dust was almost ankle deep- if it had a mind to settle at least. It usually stalked the occasional mouse or bookworm. Behind Jareth was the immense bookcase with all the leather bindings holding the laws of the land, as well as its history. As a mere prince Jareth had been forced by his teachers to study them all. He had hated his schooldays- sometimes forever does seem quite long indeed. Now he only used the books for reference and not even that often. The king knew his realm.  
On the other end of the room hung a richly embroiled yet somewhat faded tapestry, showing a mediaeval hunting scene with lots of captured game, servants and fine weather. It was the only picture Jareth allowed in the castle of his family, depicting his grizzled father (who immediately after the making of the tapestry had done away with the false beard, hunched posture and enormous crown- he had only donned them after all because that was what a retiring Goblin king was supposed to look like. In fact, as a Fay he did not differ in appearance much from his son except for the ginger hair and the eyes that were -both blue-), his mother, a tall moon-hared Fay with mischievous brown eyes and a regal posture, himself holding hands with his two elder brothers who had traditionally disappeared while questing for the right to become king, and his twin sister.  
Jareth never worried much about his brothers, though. Last he heard of them was that one of them was spotted in a place called Hawaii and the other worked on a very successful career as a singer, composer, actor, painter, whatnot. Both on Earth- of all places.  
The sister was another matter, a scorch-mark the only indication of where her face might have been. She was the why of this tapestry- a reminder to remain vigilant forever.  
  
Jareth put the goose-quill back in its inkwell. The inkwell immediately started muttering about quills being properly -cleaned- and -lids- being -useful- for not making the ink dry up. Chuckling and without any sincerity Jareth apologized to the inkwell, sanded his scribblings and blew the dust from the paper. It turned to silver and swiveled about, as if looking for some dustless spot to settle. Jareth rolled up his parchment and threw it away. The parchment obediently sprouted wings, flew to a large chest that opened en tried to settle between the letters and laws already there. Absentmindedly Jareth listened a moment to the protest of the other parchments.  
"Too full, too full."  
"No more room!"  
"Too many!"  
"Find your -own- chest!"  
Impatiently the king snapped his fingers and without further ado, the chest closed with a bang, its heavy copper key turned in it's lock and jumped into Jareth's hand. The key was as about as long as the Kings forearm and Jareth placed it in the tiny pocket of his black velvet vest.   
He conjured up a crystal and blew it to the wall. When touched by the bubble, the wall revealed an opening that had not been there. Jareth went through it and the wall closed. He walked the few winding steps down to his chambers and crossed them to the large three-way mirror.  
The head above, welded into the gold frame blabbered its advice on clothing and hairstyles to the king, as it always did, and showed him the various ways Jareth would look like should he wear them.  
The king knew he was vain- he thought himself to have every reason to -be- vain. He also made sure his vanity was justified. So he chose one of his shirts with the lace under his chin, a coat of claret velvet, breeches of brown doeskin and boots up to the thigh, the ones with the silver buckles. Jareth's sickle shaped pendant hung like a tassel from his shoulder and to look a tad more menacing, he chose a silver twinkling rapier to hug his side.  
Jareth had always liked swordplay and, since he had been thought by the best, had become one if not the most notorious swordsman of all the realms.  
It had taken him quite a bit more time to be able to actually -wear- one of those blades without constantly tripping over it.  
  
  
Far, far away, almost at the other side of the realm, so far it neared the other lands of Myth, stood above the clouds the Marble castle of the Fay enchantress Enalkyrah, twin sister to the King of the Goblin realm.  
Marble were her halls and marble was her heart, pure and white and colder than death itself.  
So cold in fact that all those who might have loved her once shunned her now. Regal as was her mother, but without her mischief, wise as her father, yet far removed from his kindness, one eye brown and one eye blue and hair like silken moonlight.  
She was the spitting image of her hated brother, the one who had cheated her of her throne, and therefore she would never show her face to the world. A cobweb vale, a cobweb gown, diamonds and pearls caught within its splendor.  
Where he reigned in chaos, she dwelled in order. Her high halls were a spotless splendor of light and air and silver. Captured clouds kept them clean, never allowed to storm and thunder as was in their nature.  
In her vaults she held her secrets and treasures. The stolen copies of the books in the King's library, the sword in the stone, the mirror of magic enabling her to look anywhere.  
And her room of spells with her book of shadows and her copper cauldron in which she brew her potions- the only room in disarray and chaos, for this was her place of creation. And it is know that only from chaos comes the new.  
This was the only dark place, yet it was her core, the center of her power. Here the walls and floor were made of black marble, here a fire always burned, here her herbs and ingredients and chemicals were kept.  
  
Here Enalkyrah went whenever the chill she shared with her brother came over her. She was amazed to find that lately those mortals who came to the kingdom were no stolen babes or fretting siblings on the chase- No. In recent days, and those went back for a year now, it was one single woman-child who crossed the threshold- more amazingly, she did so of her own violation. A woman-child her hated brother had not the heart to stop- and therefore, the child had to be in possession of his heart!  
A startling revelation, to say the least.  
The girl was dangerous!  
The girl was- useful.  
  
For nothing from the Kingdom would truly choose to harm it's King, its ruler and protector.  
  
Unless he was unable to be king.  
  
Unless others where better loved. And Jareth, the fool, was more feared than loved.  
  
For nothing from the Kingdom would truly choose to harm it's King.  
Therefore, if harm was brought to him, it had to be harm from -elsewhere-.  
  
For nothing the King would care about he would suspect. From this could be reasoned he would suspect nothing from the Woman-child.  
  
Perfect.  
  
The Mortals had such charming expressions. Like the one 'giving one enough rope to hang oneself'. Enalkyrah went to her mirror to watch. How would her twin choose to be hanged by this girl, she wondered?  
  
  
Sarah stood from her crouch, she always landed on her hands and knees when she crept through the mirror. Happily she walked over to where Ludo snored. The lumps in his bag moved violently and high pitched voices protested the rudeness of their imprisonment. One little voice squealed that 'it was not fair!' Now where had she heard that one before?  
A gruff but very welcome voice made her turn.  
"Hi there, little missy!" Hoggle came walking down the path, his blue eyes shining and sparkling as the jewels that hung on his belt. Sarah ran to him and embraced him and exclaimed his name.  
"Hoggle! Do you know how to wake Ludo?"  
"Ye just did!"  
Calling out to her dwarf-friend had indeed woken the gigantic beast, who sullenly scratched his head, blinked an smiled the friendly way only a monster with teeth to big for his mouth can smile.   
"Sarwah!"  
In turn, Sarah cuddled the nice monster and, pretending not to know already, asked about the bag. Ludo grunted.  
"Fireys. They jump. Not like stones. Stones never jump."  
"Except when you call for them."  
"Stones friends."  
"And a good thing that is too!" added Hoggle, who vividly remembered the little war with the goblin-army, when the stones had been so badly needed.  
"Yes- but now you are awake- shouldn't you let them go? I mean, they can't like it much in that bag."  
A soft, slightly menacing voice came from above.  
"What now Sarah? A kind edge to your cruel heart?"  
The three stared up through the branches and leaves of the ancient tree. And on one of them he sat, with a cocked head, a raised brow and a slight smile. In unison Hoggle and Sarah jelled.  
"Jareth!" Then they bolted.   
The King chuckled and smiled broadly. Ludo still sat on his rock, stared after two of his four best friends and looked up at the Fay.  
"And you, my fat fellow- Are you not going to run?" Jareth joked.  
With a flash of pure brilliance Ludo got an idea. He opened his bag and the four Firey heads shot up high, yelling and screaming and not caring who they might bump in to. Or throw from branches for that matter.  
One of Fireys got Jareth square on the jaw. He jelled, arms flaying, tried to regain his composure, tripped over his elegant rapiers blade that somehow was suddenly between his legs and fell with an audible thud not so elegantly on his rear on the forest floor.  
Dazed the king sat there for a moment- and in that moment he heard the muffled sounds only an uppity girl would make when trying very hard not to laugh.  
Ludo had disappeared from view, also hiding somewhere. Quite remarkable for such a large beast to so completely vanish. The heads of the Fireys bumped away over the forest trail in search of their bodies, chatting and arguing and laughing.  
"Sarah, don't!" the dazed king heard the dwarfs voice warn, but apparently the girl gave that wise advise no heed for suddenly she stood before him with an outstretched hand and an odd expression of amusement and worry on her lovely young features.  
"Are you alright? Can you get up?"  
Ignoring the hand she offered Jareth stood in an oddly fluent motion.  
"You should have -listened- to Hagwart."  
"Hoggle!"  
"Whatever!"  
Jareth shrugged the dust from his clothing and stared at the girl through narrowed eyes, making him look a lot angrier and a lot more dangerous than he actually felt.  
She had come to him. He could have hurt himself and she actually had come to him!  
On the other hand, she had had a good laugh at his expense. Nobody dared to make fun of the Goblin King- at least not in his face! But then again, this was Sarah.  
Jareth shrugged his shoulders and pulled his jacket straight. He made a small gesture and his offending blade disappeared. The girl had the gall to snicker at that.   
"So- having a good time, my dear."  
"I- er. Well actually. Yes."  
Jareth circled her and whispered over her shoulder "And how do you enjoy my Labyrinth, this time." This move would send shivers up her spine and make the girl stand straight, he knew. He was not disappointed and smiled.  
"A lot better."  
"Than last time?"  
Coming full circle he faced the child. She looked so small, so defiant.  
Sarah looked the tall man straight in his oddly colored eyes. Sunset eyes, her mother had called eyes like that. One blue' one light brown- almost golden. They made her feel dizzy with their intensity.  
And dammit- what did he know about 'last time'- had she ever been here with him -not- knowing? Sarah bit her lip.  
"A lot better than when you stole Toby!"  
"Stole him!" The king threw back his head and laughed. Amusemend sparkled in his eyes and it did something to Sarah's insides she had no name for. Omygosh- he was so beautiful! And evil and a trickster and lot of other bad things. She should not forget that!  
"Stole him? My dear as you well know you asked me to -take- him! You even added a 'right now'." The king stepped back and made an old fashioned and very elegant bow.  
"I did nothing more but your bidding milady. And how do you reward my generosity?"  
Here we go again, Sarah thought, here he is with that generosity thing again- What is it with him that he thinks a girl -likes- to be frightened out of her scull, chased until she is bone tired and terrorized into the fear of losing a brother! She crossed her arms before her and looked at the king blankly without answering him. Which of course infuriated him.  
"You reward it with trespassing! You reward it with enticing my subjects to enter   
-your- world simply for a little chat! Don't you have friends of your own kind?"  
Sarah's posture slumped ever so slightly. No, she did not have many friends of her-own- kind. Because she was different, because they did -not- believe in fairytales come true. Because she could never tell them or share. Because they thought her weird.  
Jareth saw the green eyes shutting him out. He should not have said that, but the child's defiance did not exactly bring out the best in him.  
"Well, it is time you learned a little lesson, my dear Sarah. This time you have wished yourself away."  
"What!" Sarah said in total disbelief. "I did not -wish- myself away. I just -came- here. And besides, you don't actually have a sign here that says no trespassing! You have no right to keep me here!"   
Jareth had turned his back on the girl and mouthed the words while she yelled them at him.  
"It's not fair!"  
"And scurrying through my domain without so much as a by your leave, scaring my unicorns-"  
"Scaring!"  
"Making my dwarfs late for their work in the mines-"  
"It was just a party."  
"Stealing my flowers-"  
"They were not your flowers, the old hag grew them between her weeds and she did not like them! I did her a favor picking them."  
Jareth turned to the girl and seemed to glide towards her, making Sarah step back against the old tree. Hands above her shoulders and face impossibly near he efficiently trapped her between his body and the trunk.  
"A favor? Perhaps I should do you a favor then and transform you into another little hag instead of a goblinette?"  
Sarah's blazing green eyes met his. She was too angry to be afraid anymore.   
"I won't be one of yours- not ever! Not even if you do change me!"  
Jareth closed his eyes for one short moment to dampen the emotion he felt- she might be right with that one. But never to be his- he shivered.  
"So why did you come here today, my dearest Sarah? Hm? For some fun? To see old friends? To have a little adventure?"  
  
Suddenly the underbrush gave way to an outraged dwarf who could no longer watch his 'bestes' friend be terrorized. The friend he loved.  
"You leave her alone- You leave her alone now - you-you-"  
With all the agility and speed his short legs could muster, Hoggle burst into Jareth's back, who was forcibly thrown against a now gasping Sarah. For one short moment the Fay and the human were pushed against each other, feeling each other's warmth over the length of their bodies. Sarah gasped and Jareth held his breath- Then Jareth felt a sharp pain against his ankle as he was kicked by the outraged dwarf, and he felt a blow against his kidneys- for a coward, Hoggle certainly knew how to fight.  
Maddened beyond belief by the attack, Jareth swung round, eyes blazing blue fire.  
"Enough!" he screamed, as he knocked Hoggle of his feet with a simple backhand blow.   
A wind suddenly gushed through the forest and made the trees sway violently, while the sky turned dark and the birds fell silent.  
"No!" Sarah yelled and she squirmed herself free from behind the king, running towards her fallen friend, helping him halfway up, protecting him with her body.  
Jareth neared them, a tall, dark figure, his hair wild and his eyes burning a pale fire, his voice a whisper.  
"How dare you!"  
Both Hoggle and Sarah tried to get away from him, but the howling gale kept them in place.  
Lightning crackled and in it's outline Sarah saw the enormous figure of Ludo entering the clearing. Howling. The King put his hands to his ears, apparently offended by the sound and turned from his victims towards it. He never saw the large rock that came bouncing towards him hitting his left leg, throwing him off balance and making him fall flat on his back. Again. Immediately the storm and the wind subsided. The clearing was as tranquil and beautiful as it had been moments before.  
Jareth tried to scramble up, but failed.  
"There seems to be a reoccurring theme to today," he mumbled, slightly upset, rubbing his back. Sarah helped Hoggle to his feet and asked if he was all right. The dwarf, perplexed by his own outburst of heroism and in fear of its consequences, nodded and glanced at the king. Who was still, somewhat unceremoniously, seated on the ground. His eyes shot daggers at the dwarf. Not because Hoggle had had the audacity to attack him- no- he had done so to protect Sarah and such an action he could both forgive and be amused by. It certainly was something different from the little coward. No- his anger towards the dwarf was because Sarah was taking care of Hoggle and not of him. He was jealous and angry with himself for feeling the emotion.  
Sarah turned to Jareth and noticed he was still sitting there, looking like a petulant little boy who was not having things his way. In spite of the seriousness of the situation, she could not repress a chuckle and gestured Ludo to come closer.  
"Please Ludo, could you pick him up?"  
Before Jareth could say anything to that one, the beast bent over him, grabbed his shoulders and pulled him up to a standing position.  
"Sarah, this is exactly what I mean- your presence is corrupting my people and I won't stand for it!"  
"Shall I ask Ludo to put you back than?" she asked innocently.  
Seeing the large hands coming up from behind, the elegant king stepped quickly forward.  
"That won't be necessary. I should throw you all into the Bog of Eternal Stench for this!"  
"Well why don't you. We'll find our way out!" Sarah argued.  
"Sarah, don't!" Hoggle pleaded.  
Ludo, not really understanding what was going on, sat back on his favorite stone and watched, taking his clues from the girl.  
"So you would like another trip through my Labyrinth, would you?"  
"What I would like is to go home!"  
"Forever and ever and ever?"  
That silenced the girl.  
"No- I thought not. You -like- it here Sarah."  
Sarah did not answer, but grabbed hold of Hoggle's hand.  
"You like it here, because you have-" Jareth made a distasteful face towards the dwarf, who tried to hide a little further behind Sarah "-friends- here. You like it because the land suits your imagination. Don't you understand what I'm offering girl? Don't you understand still?" Jareth actually looked a little hurt when he said that.  
"You are offering me to be your prisoner- you are offering me to become a goblin!"  
"Ah." Jareth's smile was back, a sad one, this time. "And you would do anything to escape that fate."  
Proudly the girl answered. "Yes, if you mean me to find my way through your Labyrinth and solve it. Again."  
Again, Jareth's eyes narrowed.   
"Oh Sarah! Do you honestly believe I am going to repeat myself? Or that I do not know Hogbert here-"  
"Hoggle!"  
"Don't interrupt me! Now where was I?" he sighed, "Do you honestly believe that I would not know that your little chums here won't help you again? No, my dearest girl"  
Sarah let go of Hoggle and stepped up to the king, until she stood practically toe to toe. And she looked up at him, straight into those mesmerizing eyes.  
"I don't fear you. Or anything you could throw my way!"  
"Oh really."  
Jareth stared back with equal intensity. But he actually had to swallow before he could speak. Sarah was a beautiful child, yet when angered she was utterly breathtaking. Bending a little closer to her he whispered: "Then my dear child- I will let you go, and even give you permission to return as much as you like, if you get me one of the blue Eyes of the Red s'Quaerra."  



	3. So What The Heck Is A s'Quaerra?

Disclaimer: not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises and for 'Monty Python and the Holy Grail', copyright The National Film Trustee Corporation Limited. Not making money of this. Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness. Thank you Pythons for being marvelously 'loony'.  
  
  
Enjoy  
  
Ramowen  
  
  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
Chapter Two: So what the Heck is a s'Quaerra?  
  
Sarah did not react. He was too near, her senses were in overload with Jareth's warmth his scent, his intense gaze.  
And she did not understand any of it.  
She kept staring into those eyes without reacting to him. The King, slightly disappointed, stepped back and Sarah felt as if she could breath again.  
"What-"  
"Yes, my dear?" he teased.  
Sarah swallowed. "How much -time- do I have. Should you decide to play it fair, this time."  
Jareth sighed and made a dismissive gesture to send Sarah on her way. "Take as much as you like." he said acidly.  
"Now that's fair." said Hoggle.  
The King eyed him, then shrugged. "I get rather exhausted from rearranging time for you, so I won't. This will be a battle of wits, Sarah. You have already proven your courage and your capability of deceit."  
"Deceit! You have been the one deceiving, not me!"  
"You never solved my Labyrinth alone."  
"You never told me to. Besides- I solved the -doors- alone. So if this is a battle of wits, I already know I will win!"  
Jareth smiled tiredly. "Such arrogance."  
"Don't tell me it's a pity!"  
"I would wish you good luck then, but you do not seem to need it. And Hoggle-"  
Hoggle stood back glancing sideways at his King like a frightened little animal. He hated it when Jareth made fun of his name- but it terrified him when the Fey got it right.  
"Yes?" the dwarf asked meekly. Sarah threw Jareth a look that clearly warned him -not- to harm her friend and stepped back to stand in between them. The gesture made Jareth smile inwardly and not a little proud of the girl. There was absolutely nothing she could do against his wrath should he desire to avenge himself seriously. But his face remained a careful blank as he straitened himself to his full height, eyes unreadable and looking at Sarah while talking to Hoggle.  
"I made you an opener of doors and a guardian of gates- but no longer. You better find yourself a new use to me, or I might be persuaded to rid myself of you after all!"  
In spite of his fear, Hoggle stepped away from the girl.  
"Aw no- please. I didn't" Hoggle glanced up at Sarah. "But that was how she was able to gets here!"  
Jareth smiled evilly and mocked the both of them with cocky denial.   
"Really? Well- than our Sarah just will -have- to find another way out of here, won't she? And unfortunately that way out is through me."  
"Right through you?" asked Sarah getting angrier by the moment, making fists of her hands and taking a tomboy stand as if she was almost ready to really physically attack the King.   
Locking his gaze with hers Jareth chuckled yet tensed behind his veneer of indifference.  
"Satisfy my demands, my dear. To you it should be no more than," he smiled without humor, "a piece of cake."  
Jareth bowed deeply and courteously with a flourish hand gesture, greeting the pair while he faded and disappeared.  
  
"Damn you Jareth." hissed the Dwarf.  
"A piece of cake! Come back you coward and I'll show you a piece of my mind!" shouted Sarah to nothing in particular. Then she turned her attention to Hoggle, all business.  
"Hoggle, what did he took from you and what did he mean."  
Hoggle sat down on the forest floor, putting his elbows on his knees and his large wrinkled face in his hands. He looked miserable and shook his head. Sarah kneeled in front of him, took his hands in hers and squeezed them lightly. Hoggle looked up.  
"You remembers the gate to the Labyrinth when you first came here and asked the way in?"  
"They opened when you pointed at them."  
"They opened -because- I pointed at them. Same with the door in the oubliette, same with the door when the cleaners where after us- even if we did have to -knock- that one in. I knows what to do with doors to get them to open. Same with the door to your world. When you asked, I opened it- but Jareth took the power away. I still knows what to do- it just won't happen anymore."  
"O god Hoggle- I am so sorry."  
When Hoggle saw neither spite nor anger in the girl, he shrugged her off, stood, squared his shoulders and looked up at her.  
"But we ain't gonna just sit here now- are we? We have to gets you home and if this means playing Jareth's game- we'll plays! He has made the rules- likes it or not- he as to stick to them! You coming?"  
Sarah smiled and nodded. "What you did was very brave Hoggle, coming to my defense like that. Thank you."  
Hoggle's face became a bit redder while he did his best to look away and pretended to kick at a pebble while there were none there.  
"Same to you."  
Sarah smiled at her gruff but shy friend. "Come on then. Ludo?"   
The gentle beast grinned sullenly, stood and followed. He had no idea what was going on or where, but if it meant going with his friends, then he would.  
  
"First," said Sarah. "Let's find Sir Didymus."  
"Brother will come." Said Ludo with certainty. Sarah knew he was right. Every time she came here, her friends knew for her calling. Usually she would find Hoggle first or only moments away from her arriving. Sarah now understood why, he had been responsible for keeping the crossing open to her. Hoggle had been the magic behind her little spell.  
But it had been Jareth who had given Hoggle that power in the first place...  
Sarah frowned. Jareth apparently had known of her comings and goings all the time and she did not like the trail her thoughts followed. It always had been part of the fun to be here without the Goblin King knowing and by that, fooling him. But if he had known, than whom had been the fool?  
  
The three travelers had walked the forest trail for almost an hour, when they finally reached the wall at the other side. They had heard the Fireys feast in the distance, but luckily the whimsical creatures had not bothered them. The Fireys seemed to have developed some respect for the gentle Ludo and they gave him and his company a wide berth.  
  
The group was now faced with conquering the wall. Ludo shrugged his gigantic shoulders, climbed the sturdiest vine he could find growing against it and upon reaching the top he pulled up his friends. With Ludo's help Hoggle and Sarah descended the other side.   
  
When Sarah turned from the wall, she gasped. For miles and miles and miles a patchwork landscape of flowing hills and meadows, acres, tufts of forest and wide spread villages rolled gently on and on and on. An unbroken rural peace stretched out and without being told, Sarah knew this was the Kingdom within the Labyrinth, a place where -people- lived.   
  
The landscape was crisscrossed with hedges and cobbled roads. Sarah saw carts pulled by cow-like creatures and pure bred oxen, taking home the summers bounty of grain, corn and crops in rainbow colors she could not define. Their drivers gaily greeting the others at work in the fields. Music drifted from below, smoke and the smell of newly baked brad. A proud white castle lay glinting like a pearl in the middle of an azure lake and a host of knights, their ladies and servants, seated on high white and read horses, prepared to enter it's gates.  
  
It was as if she had walked back into mediaeval times, the way they never had been but how everyone imagined them. The place where fairytales were born and knights in shining armor on white stallions were common.   
  
It all made Sarah think of postcards her mother had sent her from Ireland  
  
It was perfect.  
  
Far, far in the distance the world seemed to fall away into the nothingness of the gorge behind the Labyrinth, the one she remembered seeing from the orange hilltop where her adventures in this realm had first started. A mist rising from the gap, hiding all miracles that lay beneath.  
  
"Ye looks far aways, Sarah. What ye'r thinking girl?"  
Sarah pulled her mind from the tranquil landscape and shrugged her shoulders. Was this Jareth's land too? Did he belong here too? It seemed inconceivable.  
"It is just so weird, you know? The eye of a s'Quaerra? An eye? What does he want with an eye? Use it in a spell or something? It's just such a horrible thing to ask! And what's a s'Quaerra anyway?"  
"I don't knows."  
"We should have gone the other way and asked the old wise man with the bird hat."  
"And how useful was -he- the last time?"  
"But how will I ever get home if I don't solve Jareth's riddle! And I don't understand this game of his anyway. He has given me all the time I need, but no clue what so ever. But if I get him his 'eye', than I may come and go as I please. I think it's strange, don't you?"  
  
A new voice called out over the hillside. High pitched and chivalrous.  
"The King, milady, has methinks been quite strange of late. And not himself."  
"Sir Didymus!"  
High seated on his trusted mount came knightly Sir Didymus. Tattered and torn from various fights the one-eyed fox terrier rode towards the small group of friends, leaped out of the saddle, took off his hat and bowed deeply before his lady. Who scooped him up in her arms and gave him a rather embarrassing hug, yelling his name.  
After she finally had set him down, he had to steady himself against his saddle for a moment before he could speak again. Ambrosius, the trusted mount, barked like the sheepdog he was.   
Sarah smiled confidentially. "Well, now we are all together again, let's go and find this s'Quaerra eye."  
"A quest, milady?"  
"Given me by the King himself. But the weird thing is, he really only gave me something to win and nothing to loose."  
"That's where you are wrong, Sarah. Ye might give up. I says Jareth is counting on that. And then you'll never gets to go home. You won't even be our Sarah anymore."  
"So you think he's going to make it hard?" Sarah's chin came up and to give herself and her companions courage she shrugged off her insecurities.  
"Well, my will is as strong as his and as I told him before, he has -no- power over me! So. First we need to find somebody who knows what a s'Quaerra is, now won't we. Any ideas? Ludo?"  
"Hmph? Nah- Ludo don't know. Sorry."  
"That's okay Ludo. Hoggle?"  
"The three Fates might- but they are a long way from here.   
Didymus shook his head. "Perhaps noble Vafthrudnir?"  
"Are you daft! That'se giant!"  
"A big giant?" asked Sarah intrigued.  
"A frost giant and they are the worst!"  
"But he is wise. So is Alviss the Wise. And he is a dwarf like you."  
"Likes me? Arw! He was never likes me- And besides- he was turned to stone!"  
"Turned to stone?" asked Sarah, a little confused.  
Hoggle nodded. "He could not stands the sun, he couldn't. But they kept him talking and talking- till he forgot time and when the sun came up- I believe he's a nice garden thingy in the backyard of one of Jareth's friends now. Besides- he would have asked you too much for the answer."  
"That is true, Milady- on the other hand, it's time you were wed."  
"Didymus! You can't be serious!"  
The fox terrier eyed Sarah innocently. "But you -are- sixteen now...? Yes?"  
"Put ye're foot in ye're mouth!" Hoggle said, frowning furiously at the knight.  
Didymus looked confused, Sarah had turned beet red and Hoggle almost got angry. Luckily, the knight got a better idea.  
"The Bridge!"  
Hoggle shook his head. "That will never work- he's crazy."  
"Who is?" asked Sarah a little bewildered, hardly understanding the discussion anyway.  
"Do you remember, sweet lady, the bridge I had pledged myself to defend?"  
"Yes, very much so, why?"  
"All through the Underground are brave esquires and knights, like myself, and sages and mages and all other kind of creatures, who have pledged themselves to the honorable task of guarding crossings. Bridges included. Now this particular wise fellow guards the bridge of Death over the Gorge of Eternal Peril and asks all who wish to cross three questions. If thou cants not answer them, thou get throwest into the bottomless Gorge. He is quite the warrior and I am proud to be of his acquaintance."  
"He seems quite an agreeable guy." Sarah said dryly. "And if he asks that much, he must know a lot. Okay then. Let's go."  
"But, my good fellows-"  
The others turned to Didymus who pointed at his steed.  
"There is one sleight setback to this particular plan."  
"Which is?"  
"It's far Sarah, very very far."  
"And I fear, my good Lady, my poor mount's paws are not fitted for such a journey."  
Sarah sighed- "So we need transport. And food. "  
Hoggle shrugged- "Like what." And scratched his head.  
Something sparkled in Sarah's eye- an annoying glitter and she looked down to see where it came from. Close to the nearest village a large cart pulled by two horses and loaded with grain made it's way. It's ironwork on the wheels sparkling like silver lightning in the sun.  
  
But a superbly white cotton cloud got in the way and the common cart's nails turned dull and the wheels rattled over the uneven road like those of any cart. Sarah shivered. Unconsciously she glanced round, feeling exposed somehow.  
  
  
In his throne-room Jareth lay sprawled sideways on his throne on a -thick- green velvet cushion. He had changed his somewhat rumpled and stained outfit to his more usual gray slacks, knee-high boots, the ruffled shirt that showed the crescent pendant on his chest and the black waistcoat. He stared intently into his crystal, concentrating, his pupils as mismatched in seize as his irises were in color. Oblivious to the usual racket his goblins made. Several black chickens ran for their respective lives, there was a pie fight going on, a gambling game and the other usual lunacy. One of the fighting goblins had his helmet hit over his eyes and continued on his own, shouting -let me at him!-. His adversary let slip a handful of marbles and the poor blinded one stumbled and slid until he was stopped at the throne and bumped into one of the King's dangling boots. Jareth kicked the goblin away, but not very hard or far, and turned his interest back to the view in his crystal.  
"You're not exactly -getting- anywhere, my sweet." he muttered and tapped the crystal ball. A silver ripple went through the greater sphere outside, blinding the girl for a moment and annoying her. She looked down to watch the road. Jareth blew over the crystal, allowing her to see the illusion of a cart passing by, just to give the child an idea. The girl in the bubble pointed and the King saw the little band of travelers regroup and go on their way. He nodded. "That's better."  
  
The Labyrinth stretched out all round the Goblin City, but by no means ended there. When Jareth had allowed Sarah to enter his realm, he had only shown her a tiny part of it. The desert that seemed to surround the outer wall was no more than yet another obstacle for those he   
-really- wanted to loose to him for various reasons. It was not a gentle test and he usually judged it a too hard one for women and children. For most men too.  
  
Behind the goblin castle were the gardens with the old ivy-overgrown pavilion and the winding path to the long steep stairs down the tall cliffs far behind the castle. They led to the Crystal Lake at the bottom those cliffs, a water almost as wide as a sea and surrounded with forests and mountains, hidden under the mist of the gorge.  
  
In the lake lay a small forbidden island was a little temple, now totally hidden by vines and wallflowers.   
  
Everything in the whole of the Goblin Castle's gardens lay there unkempt and forgotten. Once it had been such a happy splendorous place, when the magnificent fountain in the pond still worked and the Fay came to dance and sing and feast.  
Those days were forgotten, now. The pond choked on green slime and the only life it supported and bred were bloodthirsty insects, waiting to grow and fly.  
The high walls were overgrown with the leafless stems of climbing roses. The grass, in the places where it was not covered with mosses, had turned a wintry brown. A rusty swing hung from an oak, telling the tale of playing children long gone. A stone bench, broken. The paths no longer recognizable but for the vague shadow of old shrubbery's and flowerbeds. Bushes, probably roses too, once when the life was still in them, growing wild. No leaves now, no flowers. The breeze coming from the lake rattled the barren branches.  
The melancholy of the place was somewhat broken by the birds that nested here and sang their evensong. By the small furry animals who made the place their home and gathered seeds and wild berries. Once, golden peacocks stalked the grass and rainbow colored pigeons nested here. Some of the pigeons had remained. But they were black now.  
The goblins did not dare to come here, none of the Fay ever would. For all it stillness it was one of the few truly cursed places in the Kingdom, and haunted with sad memories.  
  
Wild and dangerous creatures dwelled the forests surrounding the lake, their howls clear in the night. They preyed on the large deer, the King's fowl and boars. The pack of hunters grew every year, for they were well fed on the large numbers of wildlife that spread untamed and otherwise untreated through this part of the realm.  
  
Miracles do happen, even in a land were normal everyday life always seemed miraculous. Near the ivy-overgrown pavilion stood what once had been a pot, now broken. On its spilled soil one single pristine flower grew, still only a bud, its name forgotten. Its dark green leaves covered with the silver sparkles of the Kingdom's life, the Kingdom's hope.   
It was the second year this plant flowered. It fed on the music of a warmed soul and broken anger. On a reality that for most creatures would remain illusion and on the hope that dared to set free the beloved ones. When the Rulers of the Realm used their magic to steal babes from their cot or push their subjects into obedience, or tortured with pain and illusions for mere amusement that what was entrusted to them, this particular white flower had no chance to be and withered. But when the High Ruler and King of the Goblins softly gave his breath to an idea in a human child's mind, the flower opened to show its heart.  
  
  
"It's only an hours walk or so to that village. And we are sure to find ourselves a cart and horse salesmen there." Hoggle declared with confidence.  
"Salesmen usually -sell- things."  
The others looked a bit surprised with Sarah's obvious statement.  
"Yes, milady?"  
"As in exchanging goods for valuables. As in if when we have to -buy- something, we have to -pay- for it. And I doubt it my necklace and wallet will be enough."  
"Not if we merely request a test ride. Thou does not pay for such."  
"And how long do those usually take?"  
"Milady, do not fret- I am -not- a knight without means."  
"And I haves these-" Hoggle held up his bag with jewelry. His eyes were clear and he seemed to have no remorse in having made the offer. Sarah did not have the heart to insult her friends by refusing, but inside she fumed. Didymus clothing had seen it's best years and he apparently had had no plans for replacing them. A knight with means indeed! And to force Hoggle to separate from his gems- It felt like cruelty- deliberate cruelty. Sarah promised herself she -would- make Jareth pay.  
For all of it.  
  



	4. On The Road

Disclaimer: not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy of the movie). Not making money of this. Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness.  
  
Enjoy  
  
Ramowen  
  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
  
3. On The Road  
  
Rolling hills and a quiet summer day. A light breeze to make the walk a pleasure, not a labor. The sweet scent of wildflowers and herbs in the air. Flower fairies buzzing around, dancing on the fragrance and not biting. Life could be wonderful.  
  
Right.   
  
Sarah had too much on her mind to enjoy the scenery. Because of her, her friends were led into an adventure that might be more than just annoying. Because of her, they would loose their possessions. She had calculated that she had about ten hours left. It was true Jareth had given her no time limit this time round, but that could mean she might wander around for days or longer. And although Sarah's experience in the Labyrinth was such that more time passed here compared to her own world, about two too one hour, she had read too many elf-stories in which an unlucky human spent no more than an evening in the fairy-world to find himself in the future upon coming home. And more often than not turning to dust upon setting foot back there.  
  
Still, in spite of what he had done to her, she thought Jareth could not be that cruel- now could he? Sarah had thought of the Fay many times. She was both relieved and frightened by Didymus telling her the King had not been harmed by loosing his game to her. Except for his pride, that was. And that had made her snicker, given her the trust to come back here, ask her friends to visit. Yet he had known! But done nothing. So why now? What had changed?  
Sarah sighed and looked, really looked around at the land, the clear blue sky and her friends. She allowed her senses to be filled with the colors, the scents and the sounds. This place was lovely. And in spite of her annoyance over being forced to jump Jareth's hoops, if she gave in ever so slightly she knew she would feel more alive here than she could ever felt at home. Sarah stared down while silently admitting to herself, never daring to utter the thought because of its consequence, but she wished she truly could call the Underground 'home'.   
  
"Sir Didymus?"  
  
"Milady?"  
  
"What did you mean with 'the King not being himself?'"  
  
"Well, he hasn't been heard of for a while. He spends a lot of time in his High tower.."  
  
"Moping", commented Hoggle under his breath.  
  
"There are rumors he has given up on stealing young humans."  
  
"Really?" asked Sarah  
  
"Sour looser." Grinned Hoggle, winking at her. Sarah smiled back.   
Ludo scratched his head. "No bog." he stated. Sarah arched her brow and looked at the others. Didymus shrugged. "The last person to disappear into the Bog was Lepran, a person whom I cannot justly place. All I know of him is that he is a hunter killing for sport or selling his captives into other realms of Myth. He also has brought creatures from there to here. The King was not amused."  
  
"You are not telling me Jareth is actually changing? That in spite of harassing us he is being -nice-? Cheech."  
  
Hoggle laughed. "Perhaps he's just growing up."  
  
"I taught he was ancient already."  
  
"Thats right- but ancient is still young for Fay. And he has been King only for three hundred years."  
  
"King Jareth succeeded his father, good King Erkon, right after his disappearance. His lady Queen Azurmandi was heartbroken. She retreated to splendorous Owinaress Castle, the white one thou cants see in the distance."  
  
"His father disappeared?"  
  
"Some say Jareth did 'em in. But I don't believes that."  
  
Sir Didymus shook his head. "No. I say our poor former King died in the fire that raged the Castle behind the Goblin City the night Jareth came back from his quest to become the King's legitimate successor-" The knight frowned and looked pensive, as if trying to remember something. "There was -something- else. A someone." He sighed. "One tends to forget many things from so long ago."  
  
Sarah shivered. She had had no idea her foxy friend was that old. On the other hand, why should he not be. Wasn't everyone immortal down here? Save their kings, perhaps.  
  
"Still," sighed Hoggle. "Its a shame the old Queen left Jareth to find out for himself what it meants to be Goblin King. He never planned to bees one and he had no idea. He was just a brat and just like that a brat with power. He was spoiled and behaved like that and there was no one to tell him not to."  
  
"Until a year ago? Until he lost from me?" Sarah chuckled. "I really made an impact, now didn't I?" And suddenly she realized she and Jareth had something in common. When they had needed them most, their mothers had walked out on them. And they both had taken it badly, kicking at the ones around them. Sarah shivered. The last thing she needed was some kind of sympathy for the King. That sort of thing was so distracting and she found herself lost in thought too often already.  
  
Remembering, Hoggle looked up at Sarah, a wicked glint in his heavenly blue eyes.  
"Yeah, Sarah. You sure got his attention."  
  
  
"He can't be serious."  
  
The words were whispered by Jonathan the Cartbuilder, a tall and broad shouldered man in his late thirties, his beard and hair black as raven's wings and his eyes light blue marbles, currently threatening to pop out of his scull.  
  
"Oh he was quite adamant!" Patrick the Horsebreeder told his friend fuming. The smaller man looked away from his companion, almost ashamed yet firmly in control of himself. He was older too, probably his late fifties, mostly bald but for a short cropped band of gray. He held the reigns of two large almost white horses, which were clearly not the usual type the man reared for the environs. Patrick's hazel eyes burned with an angry fire and his chiseled features were stern and pale. Both men, handsome in their own respective way, showed their wealth by being well and colorfully dressed, gold on their fingers and gems on their scabbards. They had been soldiers together, once. Civilian life had been generous to them and they were good comrades still.  
  
"That damned Fay! For the first in one whole year we hear from him and why? To play some innocent a cruel joke. And we better be serious about it as well."  
  
"Or what?" Jonathan asked.  
  
"Or -we- will be riding these things!"  
  
The two white horses looked foreboding somehow, with pale silver eyes and a docile demeanor. Their muscles however quivered restlessly under their skin. Given half the chance they would bolt and run to the nearest sea.   
  
"They are Aughiskies." A statement, not a question.  
  
"And the only reason why I dare to stand as close to them as I am now, are these enchanted reigns. Part from Unicorns -maybe- they are the fastest creatures on hoof. Especially when they smell water."  
  
"The King wishes somebody to drown then? Odd."  
  
"No- he calls it 'helping'. Can you imagine the poor sod's reaction to climbing a cart with these two in front of him and tell them to guidy-up?"  
  
"They'll be on the other side of the Underground in minutes!"  
  
"Indeed."  
  
Both men turned and stared at the creatures. Normally the ghost-like beings would haunt a river or lake, drowning and sometimes devouring anyone who had the gall to try and ride them. But King Jareth had captured the Aughiskyies, enchanted them and brought them to the stables of the horse-breeder. Patrick was to go to his friend the village's cartmaker, so he could sell the horses together with a cart.  
  
"Well, we better put them away in a stable then."  
  
Jonathan led the way to his stable, but he had to lead the three normal horses he housed there to the paddock behind his workshop to avoid them panicking around the magical creatures. Patrick locked the Aughiskies in now empty boxes, relieved to be able to put some distance between himself and the beasts.   
  
The stable was a tall wooden building with sacks of wheat in a neatly pile and a large hayloft. From the shadows a small fairy with dragonfly wings had watched the two men. They left their uneasy charges to discuss the unfairness of kings in general over some ale and their voices grew distant. She detached herself from her shadows, flew around nervously for a few moments and then honed in on the right ear of the left Aughisky. She whispered something in the ear of the beast and went to the other to do the same. The calm beasts grew restless now, docility gone, impatient to run to the edge of the world.  
Instinct warned the little fairy and she retreated hastily to her shadows just in time to avoid being noticed by a white barn owl entering through one of the open windows. The animal landed in front of the boxes and in a glittering whirlwind of silver dust he shape-shifted into the slender form of the Goblin King himself. Jareth went to the beasts smiling, but that smile faded when he noticed their uneasiness. He gently clacked his tongue and spoke to the animals in a soft, reassuring voice. They came to him, head over the half door, and allowed themselves to be patted on the nose by the Fay. Jareth looked around, frowning.  
  
"Vasili- is one of you here?"  
  
From the hayloft a sleepy voice grunted.  
  
"Well!"  
  
A small dwarf peeked at Jareth from under the hay, annoyed to being awakened during daytime. Upon seeing who had called for him, he shot up, freed himself from the hay and made his way to the ladder leading down. The small dwarf, not even reaching up to Jareth's knees, had to take his time in doing so. Being a caretaker of horses, he himself had little hoofs for feet. In front of the impatient King he bowed deeply.  
  
"I am Alexei the Vasili of this stable my lord King. How may I- Oh my goodness!"  
  
Little Alexei had spotted the Aughiskies.  
  
"Don't fret about them- they will leave today. You did not notice them coming in?"  
  
The dwarf shook his head, stepping back from both the King and the animals. There was a haunted and lost expression on his bearded face. Jareth shrugged.  
  
"Yours are not replaced- they are in the paddock behind. I take it you did not saw them come in?"  
  
"No, my Lord King."  
  
"Than you could not have noticed who tampered with them either- something is -hiding- from me here!"  
  
However, before Jareth could investigate one of the sunbeams falling through the window thickened, became golden dust and swirled into the form of a small female Fay.  
She was a lovely Primrose fairy, with flowers in her blond hair, colorful see through wings and a scantly dress woven out of the morning mist. She tucked one of her locks behind a delicate pointed ear and faced the Goblin King without fear- without much interest even. Jareth crossed his arms defensively over his chest- he knew this one but too well. The Primrose fairy curtsied to Jareth and he gave her a sleight nod. The Vasili quickly took cover behind some sacks of barley, not even wanting to know what had disturbed his tranquil little life. And from the shadows the Other watched.  
  
"Goblin King."  
  
"Anna."  
  
"The Queen, your mother, requests your presence, my Lord."  
  
"O does she. Well you may inform the Queen I am rather engaged at the moment."  
  
The Primrose fairy glanced with the same haughty indifference at the Aughiskies.  
  
"The Queen told me to inform you she -wishes- you presence, -right now-."   
  
Jareth's stance slacked a little, but one would have to know him well to spot it. Anna did know him well, was there some faint trace of humor in small Fay's expression?  
  
"Very well then," Jareth answered rather bored. His form instantly lost cohesion and he dissolved into a silver speckled ray, more suited to go with moonlight than the sun. The energy of the King left the barn and Anna prepared to follow- but she halted at the horses and before leaving she whispered al little spell.  
  
"To whomever dares to ride with you  
"To whomever is thusly forced to do  
"The Queen shall grant this gift so true  
"Be protected beneath the sun."   
  
Turning to sunlight Anna the Primrose fairy left, leaving an upset barn dwarf and a spiteful hidden Other in the shadows. The Queen's protection and Jareth's calming influence had almost undone her damage. Almost.  
  
  
Over the stone bridge over the lazy river onward over the muddy sand road. When home again there would be hell to pay for Sarah's ruined jeans and low suede boots. To the right the fenced paddock with dumb looking sheep and three curious cows, their eyes following Sarah's 'Goblin Gang'. To the right a low stone wall encircling the cemetery of the village they entered- Suddenly Sarah stopped and scrutinized the churchyard. Or was it.  
  
"Hoggle?"  
  
"Yes?"  
  
"Where is the church? Come to think of it- none of those villages had churches, did they?"  
  
"Sarah- You is in the Underground! There is no place for such things here."  
  
"O- yeah. Sure."  
  
Sarah felt a bit silly and worried at the same time. She had never given the normal day-to-day life of those who actually -lived- in the Underground much taught. Or expected farmsteads, cattle, or people for that matter. And the fact that they lived without the modern religion Sarah had grown up with worried her a little. It was absurdly logical Christianity not to have a place in a world driven away by her own people- but still. She wandered to what god the people down her would pray. Herne? Thor? Did it matter?  
  
Daily life in sleepy a mediaeval storybook village. The group rounded a corner and entered the main street. It was obvious the well to do dwelled here, for most houses were built of gray stone and tiled with red roofs. Further to the end of the street she saw the white patches and dark wood of half-wood houses. Near the end of the street was a tavern with people sitting in front, watching and chatting with workmen who were cobbling the street.  
  
Sarah smelled freshly backed bread, smoked meat, wood fires and flowers. She had expected dirt, manure, sewage- none of it. Storybook village indeed.  
There were shops in this street, a jewelry-shop, somebody selling fine cloth, a bone worker who had all kinds of interesting items on his counter. Needles, buttons, a child's toy and the frame for horn rimmed glasses. She could hear the clanking and hammering of a smithy and smelled the burning coal. Colorful well dressed people walked by. Housewives and maids carrying wicker baskets filled with greens and flowers. A man on horseback wandered by, looking rather pointedly at Sarah. Not at Ludo, or Hoggle, or Didymus. No, it was Sarah herself who seemed slightly out of place here, dressed as she was in blue-jeans, white blouse and jacket. She smiled at herself and wondered if her own people would react so quietly to her company.  
  
But these people lived in a world where fairies were truth, were you would leave a saucer of milk on your doorstep at night for the house dwarf and where blue worms talked back. They were probably not so easily disturbed by what elsewhere would be strange. It made Sarah a little self-conscious though.  
  
Hoggle pulled at Sarah's sleeve and made her follow him to a tavern. On one of the benches in front of the tavern two man sat, drinking and talking and, for as far as Sarah could read their faces, being rather annoyed. She hoped she would have nothing to do with them, but Hoggle steered her straight their way. When they came closer, Sarah witnessed the two men exchange a rather significant look witch each other and the smaller one of the two nodded at the larger, bearded man.   
"You know those two?" she asked.  
Hoggle shrugged. "Hoggle knows many. Many -passed- Hoggle."  
Sarah frowned? But her question had to wait.  
"The one with the beard is the one we needs."  
  
Hoggle took the lead, Sir Didymus being not a very capable barterer and Sarah too inexperienced. Hoggle let the man know he needed a cart capable of carrying them all and the horses to go with it. The cartmaker, who introduced himself as Jonathan, told the dwarf Ludo's might be a problem for he usually had nothing to encompass his kind of seize. But if they would be so kind as to follow him to his workshop, there might be a hay-cart available. And yes- he -had- the horses to go with a cart.  
The older man looked rather grim at that. Jonathan introduced him as Patrick, the Horse breeder and told the group it were 'his' horses they might be buying. Both men walked Sarah and the others to Jonathan's workshop.  
  
Here Sarah suddenly had a vision in her mind's eye of a second hand car salesman prizing his wares to a critical customer. Jonathan rambled pleasantly and quite charmingly about the advantages of certain models of vehicles- but in the end they went with his first suggestion of a large and sturdy hay-cart. Jonathan took some of Hoggle's gems in payment and held on to the pouch to give it to Patrick who was getting his horses out. And in horses there apparently was no choice, because he almost automatically put the horses to the cart.   
  
No-one noticed the little fairy leaving her shadows once more, following, buzzing around like so many of her kin in the fields, she went unnoticed.  
  
To Sarah, they were gorgeous, as mythical and wonderful as the rest of the Underground. She neared the gray animals without even the slightest trace of fear and gently patted one of them on the shoulder and stroke his nose.  
Patrick's mouth fell open with the courage of the strange girl. Perhaps the King had not been planning some cruel joke after all, perhaps these animals were exactly what these travelers needed. But he admired the young woman nevertheless.  
Sarah saw the silver eyes, but had no grasp of their meaning. Hoggle was to busy with haggling down the price to notice, he had merely glanced the animals and saw only that they were strong. Didymus had already eagerly jumped the box to hold the reigns.   
Ludo followed Jonathan into the barn to get a sack of wheat and other things to take care of the horses. And Ambrosius cautiously neared the animals and sniffed at their legs.  
  
Sarah left the horses and climbed the cart to sit behind Didymus. Hoggle stepped up and sat down next to the knight, heaving a deep sigh over the lessened weight of his pouch. And they still had to buy provisions for themselves…  
  
The scent Ambrosius got from the horse reminded the Sheepdog of salt and running along the seashore in happy times. Of dead things. The dog looked up and saw the horse glare at him. Ambrosius jumped backwards, barely avoiding being kicked by the Aughisky. He gave a high pitched yelp and a harsh bark and fled. Didymus stood on the box, calling out for the dog and Ludo scurried after him.   
  
The little fairy landed on one of the horse's nose, bared tiny and extremely sharp fangs, and bit.  
  
The Aughisky violently reared up, taking the other halfway and startling them both. The two-wheeled cart lurched backwards and its three passengers were painfully thrown into the back. The horses bolted and the cart ran without master in a mad, mad dash to the unknown.  
  
***************************  
Yes, I know, I am sneaky little pixy grin. Hands up who recognized the additional characters of the salesmen? Expect more cameo's! No, I don't own them either, just being a fan here.  
***************************  
An Aughisky is an Irish water fairy, mostly appearing in the form of a young horse. It haunts lakes and seas and it tries to drown whoever dares to mount it. Once in the water it tears the unhappy rider into pieces and devours him, leaving only the liver. Good for them. Who likes raw liver anyway?  
***************************   
A vasili is a friendly and shy Russian dwarf or domovije, who lives in stables. He takes care of the horses of his favorite color and has hoofs for feet.   
**************************  
  



	5. Why Can't We Give Love One More Chance?

Disclaimer: not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy of the movie), and Monty Python and the Holy Grail', copyright The National Film Trustee Corporation Limited. No copyright infringement intended. Not making money of this. Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness, thank you Pythons for being so marvelously loony.  
  
The song is the first verse of Marble Halls by Enya of the Shepherd Moons album.   
The "poem" comes from the last verse of "Under Pressure", of Mr. David Bowie and Queen. So does the title of this chapter. Thought they were fitting. No copyright infringement intended. Just being an inspired fan here.  
  
Enjoy  
  
Ramowen  
  
  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
4. Why can't we give love one more chance?  
  
"I dreamt I dwelt in marble halls  
"With vassals and serfs at my side.  
"And of all who assembled within those walls  
"That I was the hope and the pride  
"I had riches all too great to count  
"And a high ancestral name.  
"But I also dreamt which pleased me most  
"That you loved me still the same,  
"That you loved me  
"You loved me still the same,  
"That you loved me   
"You loved me still the same  
  
"Mother."  
  
Jareth's deceivingly gentle voice could have cut crystal with its cold intensity. It cut the haunting song his mother sang whilst accompanying herself on her harp. Light fell brightly through the tall windows of the large circular room. The walls were supposed to be white, but almost all free space had been taken by paintings made by one hand only. They depicted melancholic saccharine scenes of a family with young children, visions of woodlands and waterfalls. Many tender portraits of a ginger hared blue eyed Fay, smiling, playing, fighting, sleeping.   
One self-portrait- radiating darkness.  
  
An easel carried an apparently unfinished work, covered with cloth and surrounded with thousands of clay pots containing any shade of color light could capture. When the Fay Queen stopped playing, the little pots started to move and scrape over the wooden floor, constantly trying to rearrange themselves according to spectrum. But they could never decide on witch one. A large oak desk stood on the far side of the room, manuscripts in a chaotic heap on top and spilled over to the floor. Here the Queen composed her music and poetry. It had never been in such disarray and in spite of himself Jareth grew a little worried at the sight of the mess his mother had made of the work she valued so. Her paintings and writings, so she claimed, were all she had left. The statement still pained the boy inside the King he had forced into hiding.  
  
Here in this shrine to the family both he and the Queen had lost, as always Jareth was assaulted by the images of days past and hardened himself against them.  
  
The slender woman stood and went to the window. She faced the Labyrinth outside, not the mystery that was her child. Her pale champagne colored curls cascaded to the floor. She had been a fairy of fire and light- yet she still choose to dress in the colors woven from a silken moonless the night and without even a star to highlight it's collar.  
The only jewel she allowed herself was the upturned silver sickle shaped ornament on her forehead, the horn-like coat of arms of her late husband's house. The same the Goblin King had dangling on his chest. The same her Erkon had used to wear.  
  
  
"Still the shades of night, mother?" Jareth asked casually. He stood there leaning in the doorframe, pretending to inspect his crystal knobbed walking-stick.  
  
"The woman-child is back."  
  
"What?" Jareth straitened in surprise and quickly yet tightly controlled he walked over to the Queen.  
  
Azurmandi indicated the Labyrinth. "The one you allow in."  
  
"What do you know of her." It was not a question, but a demand for information.  
  
"Don't be obtuse, boy."  
  
Jareth carefully gave no further outward reaction. So Azurmandi knew. Jareth however was not surprised by his mothers' knowledge, only by her interest in something outside this room. And something concerning him, no less. In that same soft restrained voice he asked:  
  
"What of her, mother."  
  
Azurmandi turned. "She is both beautiful and strong. I have dreamt about her."  
  
Jareth only raised his brows.  
  
"What are your plans towards this child."  
  
"She amuses me."  
  
"More fool you." The Queen indicated the mess at her desk. "I have been looking for something your father once wrote me."  
  
Jareth sighed. He was a bit too old for being reproached over how to handle his toy's, now wasn't he?  
  
"You don't say."  
  
From her sleeve Azurmandi took a small scrap of parchment.  
  
"Read."  
  
Showing indifference only, Jareth took the small poem and red, while his mother went to her latest painting. She stood there, waiting. Nervously fingering the cloth that covered it. Jareth did not notice, but stared at the words.  
  
"Cause love's such an old fashioned word  
"And love dares you to care  
"For people on the edge of the night  
"And love dares you to change our way  
"Of caring about ourselves  
"This is our last dance  
"This is our last dance  
  
"What is the meaning of this?"  
  
"Are you not happy to reclaim something of him?"  
  
Jareth bowed his head and sighed. "I never voluntarily claimed anything of his!"  
  
"I know."   
  
Azurmandi's voice broke, she inhaled sharply, holding part of the cloth up like a shield, swallowing hard and near to tears.   
  
Jareth again followed her trough the room. He felt a pain inside him that made speech hard. But then he did speak and gave a deadpan answer.  
  
"Finally."  
  
The mother looked up at him.  
  
"You were so -cold- Jareth. So terribly distant. You kept something hidden from me- you still do. Something important that weighed heavily on your heart. It still does. But I never saw how much this pained you, now did I?"  
  
The last the Goblin King had expected from today were words showing the beginning of understanding- not from her. The little boy inside was kicking at his ribcage, making it hard to breathe or speak. Making it hard to slowly follow the Queen trough the room instead of rushing at her. The little boy yearned to hold her. The embittered man would not.  
  
"It does not matter, mother. It is the past."  
  
"No." She shook her head. "And yes. It is this past that obstructs your future. And mine."  
  
Jareth held out the poem to her. "The meaning of this?"   
  
"You need to change, my son. You need to let go of the chill that has frozen you."  
  
Jareth smiled, his mismatched eyes hard. "An old song, mother. One you told me yourself you believed impossible."  
  
The Queen cringed. "Those were terribly cruel words to say to you. And I wish you could at least feel anger when giving them back to me."  
  
Jareth gave a cold unbelieving chuckle in answer. He made a little bow, indicating he had wasted enough of his time and was ready to take his leave of her. Inside he felt as if standing in the heart of a hurricane, total turmoil. For nearly three hundred years this woman had either accused or ignored him. He should be curious at least to learn what prompted her current behavior. All he wanted was to leave her to the non-existence she had chosen, hidden behind the castle walls.  
  
Azurmandi would not let him go. All outward signs of emotion erased from her equally composed features.   
  
"We are cowards both, Jareth. We are both on suspended on the edge of night."  
  
"I hardly believe father meant that."  
  
"I have however seen hope for you."  
  
Jareth's smile grew to a toothy grin, openly displaying disbelieve. Azurmandi pulled away the cloth from her painting. Jareth's mouth fell open and he was drawn to the picture like moth to flame.  
  
Sarah's dream. The dream he had lured her into with the poisoned peach.  
  
Sarah. Lovely Sarah in her gown of white satin, slipping away, turning from him. Turning towards the edge of the bubble moments before crashing it with that damned chair. And Jareth saw himself watching her leave. Struck with the haunted, desperate and lonely expression on his captured features.  
  
This was not true- this was -not- how it had been! He had merely taunted her, merely delayed her! It had been part of his riddles, nothing more.  
  
But why then, could he not stop his hand from touching the girls painted features?  
  
"Go to her, my son. Stop playing these silly games with her. Don't deny yourself the happiness I know you -will- find with her."  
  
"How could you know that?" he whispered.  
  
"I saw you two dance, Jareth. I saw how she looked at you."  
  
"How could you see! You invaded her!"  
  
"So- you can feel -some- genuine anger after all."  
  
"You will let her be!" he hissed.  
  
"So protective."  
  
"I am not-" Jareth could not speak for a moment, but it was true. He felt oddly protective towards the girl. And jealous of her affections towards others."  
  
"She is just a beautiful child."  
  
"A flower you would have plucked under any other circumstance. I know you, my son. You are a hedonist with very little restraint."  
  
Jareth turned to her, furious. "What in Hades are you accusing me of, -mother-! She is a child! She was too young!"  
  
"She might be still. Humans are quite different. But making her run through the maze won't help you."  
  
Jareth's posture gone, his hand tracing the contours of the painted image, terribly lost.  
  
"I just wanted-"   
Azurmandi waited him out, said nothing. Jareth broke free from the painting and turned to her. "I just wanted her -near-."  
  
For the first time in three hundred years Azurmandi and Jareth truly looked each other in the eye and acknowledged each other's grief.  
  
"Jareth, I -am- reaching out to you. Please, for both our sakes and especially for your own, dare to change."  
  
"I-" Jareth shook his head.  
  
Azurmandi sighed. "You are so stubborn sometimes, just like your father."  
  
  
  
"Get the reigns!" screamed Sarah, rubbing the back of her head, which had met with the bottom of the cart rather roughly.   
  
"Awwww!" moaned Hoggle, holding on tight for dear life, hugging the side of the cart. He was paralyzed with fear and dizzy with the speed the cart had developed. Everything outside was a burr of colors, undistinguishable. Fighting his vertigo took all the dwarf had.  
But not brave and rash Sir Didymus. He jumped on the box, held himself steady with one hand and grasped for the dangling leather straps with the other. A little half remembered song was in his sensitive ears for a moment- something about queens and sunlight. Suddenly, the reigns jumped into his paw. The knight pulled them hard, squealed as he himself was pulled from the box by the movement of the horses and screamed even harder when Sarah pulled him back again just in time by grabbing the tip of his tail. But even with the reins in hand, however hard the two friends pulled, they had no mastery over the horses what so ever. The horses did however calm down a bit and the surroundings the tree found themselves in became somewhat recognizable.   
  
They thundered through a barren wilderness of rock and low mountains. Mosses seemingly the only thing that grew here. The landscape changed into broken and battered cliffs, the rubble thrown up by the hoofs pelting down on the now weary travelers.  
  
And on they went, till finally the axle broke under the violence of the journey and the three unhappy passengers where thrown out of the cart head over heels, while the Aughiskies sped on mindlessly.   
  
While Sarah was thrown from the cart, she fully expected to die. She expected to land on her scull, feel it crack and she waited for pain and something like a life flashing before her eyes-  
  
Instead of all that, Sarah found herself back suspended in mid air- an arms-length above the stony path the cart had traveled.  
  
"What the-"   
"I say, this is unexpected, what?"  
"Awwwwwww!"  
  
All three were in somewhat the same position. Sarah saw Didymus hanging upside down, his tail straight in the air, Hoggle in an odd sitting position, hands over his eyes not even wanting to know what was going on an she herself face down yet unable to move.  
  
"Okay- let's stop hanging around- what do we do now!"  
  
A new voice came from the right- a male voice with the ultimate Scottish accent. Sarah could not see him, suspended like that in her rather undignified position."  
  
"Giggle." the voice said.  
  
"I beg your pardon, good sir?" Didymus answered.  
  
"Giggle- you're trapped in a very strong protective spell. If you laugh it will know you're safe and it will let you down."  
  
"Thou art wise in those matters, good sir?"  
  
"Naturally. For I am an Enchanter."  
  
"And by what name art thee known- oh wise Enchanter of these desolate hills?"  
  
"There are some who call me-" the voice hesitated, "Tim?"  
  
Sarah lost it. First that mind-boggling ride through hell, then ultimate scare in being thrown out of the cart and the ridiculous situation she was in now. She laughed, hard deep belly laughs and she could nor make herself stop.  
  
"That's the idea lass - that's it. Now you're on the ground now, you may stop now. Please stop!"  
  
But Sarah could not, turned to face this Tim guy and saw a man in a tattered old cloak, with a gray and black long thin beard and the most ridiculous headgear made out of an ill fitting cap with two far to large curling capricorn horns attached to it. He held a tall staff and in frustration he shot at the rocks with it. They turned to fire immediately. This display of power sobered the girl somewhat. In the meantime, Hoggle suffered from the same 'fun' attack as Sarah had, only much louder, and Didymus gently lowered himself with civilized chuckles.  
With the three snickering travelers at his feet, Tim apparently felt the need to compose and prove himself.  
  
"You are the human child, Sarah Williams!"  
  
Surprised Sarah nodded and gathered her wits together. "That is right."  
  
"You seek the s'Quaerra."  
  
"You know a lot, don't you?"  
  
"Quite!" Tim pointed at a nearby rock and the thing exploded with relish. In spite of themselves, Didymus and Hoggle applauded..  
  
"Do you know perhaps what that is- and where we could find one?"  
  
The Enchanter nodded. "Ye can find one by passing the Bridge of Death. And that won't be easy lassie. You'd better turn back, before it is too late!"  
  
Sarah looked at the mage sharply now- no he had two rather normal blue eyes- not mismatched ones. But that comment was Jareth's!  
  
"Are you a False Alarm or something- because we are gonna get there! No matter what!"  
  
"Well then, me girl. If you are so determined-, follow."  



	6. Of Evil Fay And Happy Gnomes

Disclaimer: not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy of the movie), and Monty Python and the Holy Grail', copyright The National Film Trustee Corporation Limited. No copyright infringement intended. Not making money of this. Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness, thank you Pythons for being so marvelously loony.  
  
Gnome jokes and references either inspired by or pinched from Mr. David Bowie's 1967 song 'The Laughing Gnome". No copyright infringement intended, just being an inspired fan here.  
  
The song of the clouds is all me.  
  
Enjoy  
  
Ramowen  
  
  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
5. Of Evil Fay And Happy Gnomes  
  
When my soul takes flight  
Where rain is trapped no longer  
I shall go  
I shall be free  
  
In a place where tears are not held back  
And the rage of fire may be healed  
I shall go  
I shall be free  
  
  
The language of her trapped clouds was one Enalkyrah still did not understand. She heard them whispering on the edge of her consciousness and found the sound of their voices somewhat pleasing, but the actual words she could not make out. Besides, she was too tired, too spent, to waste her meager energy on something as trivial as the song of young clouds.  
  
  
Oh you beautiful ones  
With hearts pierced by lightning  
Haven't you learned  
Freedom lies in letting go?  
  
In flying with the wind  
In letting the thunder out  
In meeting the other  
In riding the storm  
  
  
Enalkyrah needed power to keep her floating castle flying, to keep dominance over those who served her, willingly, enchanted or enslaved. She needed power to maintain the spells of bitterness and anger over those she once regarded as family. A spell she to her dismay found in tatters. Her Mirror of Magic had shown it to her. Mother and son, after three hundred years, talking. Not shouting, arguing, accusing. Talking.  
  
At least she was spared the defeat of their embrace! If up to her, they never would.  
  
Leaning back in her marble chair in front of her mirror, Enalkyrah pondered the hopes she now had and the dangers she feared. All because of one silly little human girl with more damn luck than she deserved!  
  
Enalkyrah lay her right hand over her heart and stilled herself. This would not do. If even -she- was falling under the Woman-child's spell, what hope did she have in destroying Jareth?  
  
This Woman-Child. Trusting and therefore being trusted. Caring- and therefore unraveling the spell of bitterness Enalkyrah had woven. Forging lasting friendships- And being so naive that those around her reacted with awe.  
Courageous and strong willed-  
  
A feast to break!  
  
Not kill- the spur of the moment spell over the ghost-horses had been a mistake. Jareth had noticed something wrong. Azurmandi had deemed it necessary to protect the child- It had seemed a good idea, though. Think, just think of the Kings horror and anguish to find the child killed by the untamed horses -he- would have brought her!   
No. No direct approach. Not again. But it would take an enormous amount of power to carry out what had formed in her mind originally- and it still might not work!  
  
In the back of the vault was a little gap in the wall, just above the floor. In front of it there lay a plate and an empty flask. Enalkyrah sighed, performing the only menial task she would entrust no other. She ungloved her fine, elegant hands, picked up the flask and filled it with crystal clear water from a tap in the wall. Out of a rack next to the tab she picked a loaf of stale bread, blew over it so it would be warm and smelled invitingly. She put the bread on the plate and the flask beside it, but shoved both backwards. And waited.  
  
It was never a long wait- not anymore.  
  
A sound. Moving, a scraping over the floor. A smothered cough. A labored breath. Nails searching the wall for the opening.  
  
Enalkyrah kneeled silently next to the gap.  
  
A gray-white mess of scars and ancient bandages groped for the bread. Enalkyrah caught the mockery of a hand within her own, disregarded the terrified hauls on the other side of the wall and held on.  
  
Sunlight, a meadow, laughter, darkness, darkness, fire. Hatred! Power- energy strength. She drained it all from him. It flooded through her veins, invaded her mind, made her head light, her muscles unclench and the world so much easier to bare. She laughed, joylessly, hysterically.  
  
The being on the other side screamed and felt his strength stolen. There was no mind there, only pain and anguish. The screaming stopped, soft whimpering wrenched from the creature.  
  
Not planning on it's death, Enalkyrah let go.  
  
She stood, straighter, taller. Silver strands of energy flickered over he body and she held her hands up to her face, laughing, watched them shine with their again powerful aura. The hand weakly searched for the food, and obliging it she kicked it through the gap.  
  
"My- I am surprised at you- So much memories still, old fool?" Her voice turned venomous. "Still not mad enough eh? Still hoping to return to the light? They won't come for you- they will never come for you. They have forgotten you!"  
  
No reaction from the dark. Enalkyrah had not expected one. She went back to her seat in front of the mirror to start another search. She did not notice the soft sounds of muffled crying.   
  
  
Once again in front of the mirror, the Grey Witch grounded herself. Feet a little apart, hands on the armrests, back straight. Concentrating.   
  
Another plan was needed. A trap for him was set, but he might escape. A trap for the girl to break her- to bring her under a spell. To end it all, if necessary. A plot within a plot. A plan behind a plan.  
  
"Mirror mine,  
"Show me dine  
"Show me  
"Where I need to be  
  
An image appeared. A restless cold sea, forever attacking a barren split of land, a smoking island near the end of the world.   
  
Enalkyrah nodded.  
  
"Castle tall  
"Hall's so clear  
"Take me there  
"Bring me near  
  
Slowly the walls and towers obeyed the command of their mistress and began the journey.  
  
But now the harder task. To find with her mind yet another key to the kingdom. So many uncertainties- He would work for her though- the price was right. If the price would be his.  
  
Concentrate!  
  
Back, back the mind is cast, the inner eye unveiled. Out the cry goes to far beyond. Down through the clouds, over the desert past the Labyrinth. Away from the Goblin City and It's castle, away from the gardens and down again. Down along the cliffs and over the valley, down alongside the river away from the lake. The forest deep and silent and dark even in daytime. One clearing, silver dancing. The call.  
  
"Glanconer!"  
  
  
A memory interfering.   
"You are so stubborn sometimes, just like your father."  
  
Oh- if he but -were- just like his father!  
  
"Glanconer! Don't tease me. Come!"  
  
One eye blue, one eye brown with golden highlights, in pain.  
Hers or his?  
  
"Glanconer!"  
  
Two blue eyes- the horror of betrayal, the pain of scorching flesh, eyes turning white and blind-   
  
Past the memory- truly in the glade, calling.  
  
"Glanconer."  
  
A mist of darkest green, rising from the mosses, purple highlights, nightshade blue.  
  
"Come to me."  
  
Mist condensing to a slender body of mythical beauty, naked in the shadow, silver dust dancing. Sharp features, a stance like a man, but a smile like a reptile. Light from within, flashes of it crowning him, eruptions of energy.  
  
A voice soft and sweet as honey, seductively whispering, the voice of the Love Talker.  
  
"Who calls for me?"  
  
In his mind the answer came and he smiled. Onyx black eyes turned to the sky.  
  
"In twilight, my Queen, we -shall- meet."  
  
  
  
"Look- what was your name again?  
"Ludo."  
"Look, Ludo- you can't go after them. They are going to fast and they are too far already. You won't be able to find them, you don't even know where to start looking!"  
  
The townspeople, startled from their normal daily life by the mad dash of the Aughiskies, tried to comfort the poor friendly monster that had been left behind. They huddled around and gave too many good advises and Ludo understood none of them. Neither was he willing to take any. He pointed at Ambrosius and said stubbornly "Friend knows find friends!"  
Ambrosius enthusiastically sniffed the road, pointed professionally one paw lifted and his nose in the right direction. Finally understanding talking to Ludo, or trying to distract him, was of no use, they cursed the King, fed the beast and his dog, gave him something in a -large- knapsack for along the way and waved the unlikely pair goodbye.  
Nose to the ground, Ambrosius took the lead and the both of them went the direction of where the sun would set.  
  
  
  
"Thou art truly a mighty Enchanter, oh Tim, to catch us like you did!" Didymus said, trodding alongside of the tall magician.  
  
"Yes, we are really grateful-" added Sarah.  
  
"Ach- I would wish that were truth, lassie, Sir knight. For although I am the greatest with -this- (another couple of rocks were blasted with a wave of the wand and a bang) I am by no means powerful enough to protect ye from such a tumble. No- that was Fay magic- fer sure."  
  
"Fay magic- did you say -Fay- magic."  
  
"You don't hear so well, lassie?"  
  
Hoggle grunted. "She hears just fine! But if this was Fay magic then somebody we know must be watching us and we don't likes that!"  
  
Sarah fell silent, walking behind the Enchanter and next to the Dwarf. She should -not- like it now, shouldn't she? On the other hand- a certain Fay looking after her… No- but spying on them was certainly not beneath him. Still, he did not seem to want any of them to get hurt. A concern apparently different from the last time she was struggling through the Labyrinth, now wasn't it?   
  
Meanwhile, Tim was bragging about a fight he had witnessed between a group of silly knights and a rabbit with nasty big pointy teeth. And how after the battle the knights had passed the cave of Cair Bennoch where the rabbit had lived, to find the bridge on the other side. A monster had once stalked those caves, an ugly thing with a tremendous amount of eyes- but it had vanished mysteriously and now a colony of gnomes inhabited them.  
  
"In yesteryear all of this lay strewn with the bones of no less then fifty men! That was how evil this monster was!"  
  
Sarah looked down upon a neatly kept field of gravel, with shrubbery's at the sides. A couple of old gray and scarlet clad gnomes sat on a bench, drinking ale, chuckling and watching over some tiny young ones. The gnome children were playing some miniature version of cricket. It all looked extremely neat and peaceful, especially in the middle of these desolate hills.  
  
"You mean the rabbit-" Sarah asked.  
  
"A vile creature!"  
  
"The rabbit."  
  
Didymus shivered as if he were talking about some bogy-man type of monster and whispered with awe "A white one."  
  
"Quite-" Sarah deadpanned. Perhaps there were some ferocious rabbits in Underground- just like biting fairies.  
  
Tim turned to Sarah. "This me dear, is where I tell you goodbye. And good luck."  
Without waiting for an answer or any other word of thanks, Tim turned away, walked a few paces, spread his arms and disappeared in a column of fire. The same instance Sarah saw him appear on a hilltop quit a distance away, happily continuing with blowing up rocks.  
  
Turning to the cave's entrance again, Sarah found herself faced with four very small boys, the most curious of the gnome children apparently. They looked up at her smiling and chuckling.  
  
"Ello," one of them said. "Well what are you doing 'ere then? What's your name?"  
  
Sarah smiled. "My name is Sarah, and these are my friends Sir Didymus and Hoggle. We are looking for a way to get to the Bridge of Death. We need to ask the guardian of it some questions."  
  
"Ask 'im questions? Ask 'im questions you say?" The little gnomes started giggling.  
"Well that's something else."  
"Yeah, that's a laugh."  
  
"Where are we anyway?" asked Sarah. She liked the happy little critters."  
  
"Gnomansland, off course."  
  
"O good-" Hoggle sighed relieved. "They are Laughing Gnomes."  
  
"Well, you people better come inside, 'ave a talk to me dad then."  
"Yeah- an' 'ave a cup 'o tea."  
"Tell us all about yourselves."  
  
Sarah chuckled. This would be fun.  
  
  
  



	7. Gnome Sweet Gnome

Disclaimer: not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy of the movie), and Monty Python and the Holy Grail', copyright The National Film Trustee Corporation Limited. I guess the Jim Henson Company owns "The Storyteller", please correct me if I am wrong. No copyright infringement intended. Not making money of this. Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness, thank you Pythons for being so marvelously loony.  
  
Gnome jokes and references either inspired by or pinched from Mr. David Bowie's 1967 song 'The Laughing Gnome". Some lines of the Bette Midler song "The Rose" are quoted. No copyright infringement intended, just being an inspired fan here.  
  
Enjoy  
  
Ramowen  
  
  
Diamond Tears   
  
Chapter 6. Gnome Sweet Gnome  
  
"Arf." whined Ambrosius. Ludo took some tasty bun with chicken from his knapsack and gave it the dog. They were picnicking at the edge of a forest, still following the old road Sarah's cart had taken . Both the dog and the monster, beings living the moment only, did not realize their search to be hopeless, near unending. Their friends needed them and that was all that mattered. Not the length of the journey, not even the journey itself. They followed their call and moved, ate when they were hungry and would sleep when grown tired. Perhaps at that moment, Ludo and Ambrosius were the most contend beings alive.  
  
  
A few paces inside the cave's entrance, Sarah, Sir Didymus and Hoggle found themselves blocked by a wooden wall with a small door. One of the Gnome boys knocked on the wood and the door swung open. Sarah had to bend low to enter, but inside the cave she could stand.  
  
And again Sarah was met by a fairytale. Candles everywhere and the scent of old pineapple trees. The hallway of yellow and red stone glittered with silver highlights and Sarah was led to a thick curtain of scarlet velvet, hung with golden rings from a golden rod. Laughter came from behind the curtain and the visitors were pushed and pulled through it by the little people- into an enormous hall deep inside the earth. Being near the top Sarah could touch the roof of the cave, but she could barely make out its floor.  
  
Everywhere around her Sarah saw openings clearly leading to the Gnome's homes, connected with both stone and wooden passageways all along the walls and with several bridges crisscrossing the open space like metropolitan highways. There were thousands of little human-like creatures everywhere. Chubby lady gnomes and bearded male ones with centuries old wrinkled faces-   
All dressed in various shades of gray and purple, and all apparently having the time of their lives, laughing and joking with each other. Sarah was asked to climb inside a large wicker basket that was chained to an enormous wooden crane. When inside, the crane swung out into the open space and Sarah was gently lowered via this odd elevator. But it worked smoothly and the ride gave Sarah the chance to take a good look around.   
  
Since there was no daylight coming in, the dwarfs had hung lanterns everywhere, some with colored glass spreading enchanting blue, red and green lights. Under bright yellow lights plants flowered and trees grew from the cave-wall- some had a swing attached to it and there were little Gnome children everywhere. Most stopped with whatever they were doing to smile and wave at Sarah as she passed. Sarah heard the melodious clatter of falling water and saw an opening in the wall through witch it came down and fell into a wooden channel, diverting into an intricate system of pipes leading to the apartments. There were no doors, only brightly colored heavy curtains- and most of them were open. All along the wall were images carved. Portraits of Gnomes, surface animals, elves and insects. It gave the cave an organic feel, vibrant and alive and Sarah could swear that some of the carving's eyes followed her with mischievous stares.   
  
Finally the basket touched the floor. Sarah stepped out and the 'elevator' was lifted, probably to collect her friends. Here, on ground-level so to speak, Sarah saw that the openings in the walls led to workshops of all kinds- But most Gnomes dropped whatever they were busy with and gathered round Sarah who was suddenly knee-deep in tiny people.  
She felt like Gulliver.  
  
The little people pulled Sarah to what was apparently the town square, offered her a chair- decided against chairs for gigantic human girls and gathered her a small hill of brightly colored cushions. The Gnomes asked Sarah her name and if she were hungry, promptly serving her a meal of backed toadstools and dandelion wine. Not being used to alcohol, Sarah felt a little giddy when both Hoggle and Didymus finally arrived.   
  
With all of their guests seated and at ease, the curious little people were ready to listen to the why of their visit. When they heard of Sarah's quest, some started to sing something like:  
  
"Ha ha ha, hee hee hee  
"I'm a Laughing Gnome and you can't catch me  
  
They told Sarah that Jareth had tried to make the Gnomes work for him, just like the Goblins.   
But they had not liked the idea of having to snoop around people's homes to steal children and so they had fled their original village home, about - well, three hundred years ago? At the beginning of the King's reign? Yeah, it had to be something like that. They had been homeless Gnomads for a while, but now they had their own place again. Besides, it didn't really matter where one lived, as long as you were with family and friends. Gnome is where the heart is- you know? A good witch had given them a spell to hide all that lived in the Gnome caves and they were never bothered again.  
  
One Gnome by the name of Fred promised to guide Sarah through the caves to the other side,   
where the Bridge of Doom was. But he, and he really tried to do so sternly, warned the travelers not to try to cross the bridge, because then they would be forced to answer the guardians questions and that was near to impossible.   
  
"But Tim the Enchanter has told us already that if we wish to get to the s'Quaerra, whatever it turns out to be, we -have- to cross that bridge."  
  
"You an' you're mates in trouble then' girl. Ye gotta find another way. Tha' bridge, it 'as a magic, ye know? They say tha' if ye cross it ye come where ever ye wanna be. There really isn't another -side-."  
  
"An' noooo coming back from wherever ye're gone too." A lady Gnome tuned in. "Ye see, 'cause there ain't no other side of the bridge, there ain't no bridge on the other side."  
  
"Ooh," moaned Sir Didymus, "how -am- I going to get back to my poor Ambrosius. Milady, if we do continue on this course, we might never see both my steed and brave Sir Ludo again."  
  
Sarah put a comforting arm around Didymus. "I really don't think so. Jareth has asked me to bring back that eye, so there must -be- a way back."  
  
Hoggle shook his head. "But Sarah, couldn't that be Jareth's point? What if we gets trapped and we -really- cant go back. Than you have lost!"  
  
"Look, I -know- he isn't fair", the Gnomes started to applaud and whistle after Sarah had said that. "But if I don't take that chance I'll never make it anyway. But you two don't-"  
  
"Don't say it Sarah- don't even thinks it! Yer not facing His Owlyness himselves, so there is no point in going on your lonesome!" Hoggle stated firmly, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at Sarah, daring her to argue his point.  
  
"Hear hear." Intoned Sir Didymus.  
  
Before Sarah could answer, a delighted cry was heard from the back of the square. A high pitched female voice yelled that everybody had to come look and -see-. So en masse, all the Gnomes did, with Sarah, Hoggle and Didymus in their midst.  
Near the back of the cave the Gnomes had made themselves a garden with a few willow trees, a fountain and some potplants. In one of the pots a green seedling shyly pushed it's way to the surface, dark green leaves still hiding whatever it might become. But the Gnomes became greatly exited when they saw it.  
Hoggle, Didymus and Sarah stared at each other without understanding. The Gnomes stood there, smiling silly little smiles and Sarah noticed many of them stood in pairs now, hand in hand, looking at their children or deeply into each other's eyes. She could hear a song being murmured, but the most of the words eluded her.  
  
"I say love, it is a flower,  
"and you it's only seed.  
  
Fred noticed her confusion and tried to explain, although he himself seemed baffled by the growing bud.  
  
"That's the Flower o' Life we took from our village- The seed was in the pot, bu' it never grew again. It 'as other names- Soul's Shine, Rose 'o Love- Ye know, names like that. But they all died. They all disappeared. An' now it's back! Some kind 'o magic we lost must 'have come back."  
  
"Thou meanest the white flowers that were so abundant in the old days?" Didymus asked.  
Fred nodded happily. Sarah scratched her head and looked pensive.   
  
"You know- there -is- some kind of pattern here."  
  
She got some very expectant stares from both her friends and the nearest Gnomes. With typical human logic Sarah did the math.  
  
"Three hundred years ago, Jareth's father was King and I heard Didymus refer to him as the 'Good King'. Three hundred years ago that Good King disappeared and has been presumed dead. Three hundred years ago Jareth became King, drove you Gnomes from your homes, apparently changed a lot because nobody likes him, and this wonderful flower disappeared- So what's the connection between your kings and this flower? And what is changing -right now- that is making it grow again?"  
  
Hoggle and Didymus looked at each other and shrugged and the Gnomes, not all that well known for their powers of reason or deduction, just started to giggle and telling each other that it was   
"a good one".   
  
Sarah understood she would not get any answers from this happy crowd. Perhaps the guard of the bridge knew- she was getting rather anxious to meet this mage.   
  
Neither Hoggle nor Didymus felt for any further delay in their journey either. So they said their good-byes to the friendly Gnomes and followed Fred through the dark caves. They walked by the light of their lanterns, followed by their own ghostly shadows grotesquely distorted by the irregular walls.   
Apparently in ancient times a river had hollowed out the mountain Fred told them they were now travelling trough. Stalactites hung like stone curtains from the roof of the cave, their mighty tresses flaming dark red and gentle browns when they passed. Stalagmites reached up from the floor to meet their hanging brethren, creating a veiled stone forest where one could easily loose oneself. For like all passageways inside the Labyrinth, Sarah found the caves behind the Gnome City a to be maze inside the larger maze. She would have had a dickens of a time trying to find her way through on her own, even if there were no little Brownies to change her markers.  
  
Suddenly, from deep inside the earth, far deeper than the Gnome City, a clanging was heard.   
A dry heat spread through the passageways and the scent of coal and fire and steam drifted towards the travelers. Fred tried to hurry past, but Sarah's curiosity got the better of her.   
  
"Fred- I thought you had a smithy in your village?"  
"We do- but those guys are no Gnomes- They Dwarves, an' they live 'ere on their own cause they 'ave a 'obby we don't like very much! Ye see girl, our guys make tools, pickaxes, shovels, you name it. These two are armourers. They came 'ere as fugitives themselves, so we never minded much. But we're not real friendly-like either."  
  
Hoggle frowned. "I thoughts you people were friendly to everybody?"  
  
"Well- we don't -dislike- 'em! An' our ' city is open to 'em. If they just would stop te make those 'orrible things! They serve -no- real purpose except for making people miserable."  
  
"My dear sir Gnome I do not agree!" Sir Didymus rattled his rapier. "This trusted fellow has saved many a helpless maiden or peasant from the dangers of dragons and injustice!"  
  
"No- your rusted fellow was in -your- 'ands and you were it's master. You saved 'em!"  
  
Slightly glowing at those words, Didymus half missed the pun. "My what, good sir?"  
  
"But those guys down there- they don't make 'normal' pointy things- 'Ell no! They're the ones that made Tyrfing!"  
  
"Oh boy." said Sarah. Even she knew the terrible legend. Forced by a power hungry king, the dwarves Durin and Dvalin had been forced to create an unbreakable, invincible ever sharp blade, capable of cutting through both metal and stone. But the dwarves tricked the king and cursed the sword. When drawn, it could never be sheathed again without having tasted the blood of the slain and whom ever would own and fight with it would in the end be destroyed by it.   
So had been the fate of the unfortunate king and all the subsequent owners, until the sword disappeared.   
  
Durin and Dvalin had fled and finally ended up with the Laughing Gnomes, for they were in fear of their existence, they said, from Jareth this time. The Gobling King had sought them out to make him a weapon capable of countering Tyrfing. But the dwarfs themselves did not have that kind of magic- they did even not know who would have.  
Besides, Tyrfing had disappeared, so why would anyone weld a blade with even more power?   
And it would certainly be in the wrong hands with the Goblin King.  
  
To her own surprise, Sarah got really upset over that.   
  
"Oh come on! I have seen how 'well' Jareth handles a sword. He trips over them and embarrasses himself! His power is in his magic and those crystals he is always playing with."  
  
"Yes milady, that is true. However I have seen him beating other Fay in jest and tournament. There was none greater or more elegant a swordsman that he."  
  
For a moment the image of a knightly Jareth bravely winning a tournament for his lady made Sarah giddy- but she quickly came back to reality.   
  
"Has Jareth ever been known to kill anybody like that?"  
  
The Gnome, Dwarf and knight shook their heads in unison.  
  
Sarah pondered her next question and perhaps asked it more too herself than the others.  
  
"Has Jareth ever been known to kill anybody period?"  
  
"Well," said Hoggle, "there was that cow-thing."  
  
"That what thing?"  
  
"Half bull, half man. Completely bonkers. It attacked some of the human folk and tried to eat their children." Hoggle shrugged.  
  
"Sounds like a Minotaur. Jareth saved them?"  
  
"It was a splendorous fight, bravely fought and with great danger to the King himself. Had he not been able to cast a healing spell over himself, he certainly would have perished. The cowardly beast attacked from behind and caught the King on his horns before he called lightning down to strike it and turn it to ashes!" Didymus could not hide the admiration in his voice.  
  
Hoggle nodded. "And I knows he shooed of a dragon once- put out the fire in it's throat by throwing a bucket of water in it's mouth. The poor thing was so embarrassed it tucked it's tail and fled."  
  
Fred chuckled "Yeah- We 'eard the story. We 'ad a good laugh about that one."  
  
Suddenly Sarah was flooded with tales of an unknown King Jareth who with mischief, guile and bravery guarded a kingdom far greater than the land of the Goblin's. He appeared too clever for giants, too fast for dragons, too powerful a mage himself to be thrown by witches, protecting his kingdom with a vengeance.  
  
Yet nobody liked him and everybody was afraid of him. And if he came to ask a favor or a duty, you fled. Leaving the Fay only the company of the mindless goblins.  
  
It sickened Sarah to think of Jareth like this, a lone defender, disliked and misunderstood. Why was she the only one who saw Jareth like that? He had hurt her. He had stolen her brother and made her go through that damnable Labyrinth of his. That wonderful magical place she could not help but fall in love with. Where she had experienced the adventure of a lifetime. Yes, he had -really- wronged her, hadn't he? That man who would rather laugh in a dragon's face than kill it with his magic- Oh how hard he had made her journey- It probably had been a stroll compared to the 'dangers untold' the Labyrinth truly held.   
  
Compared to what she now knew of the King that little stint with those weird horses had been rather uncharacteristic- She had no doubt Jareth was involved. But still, nothing serious had happened. And they had arrived at their destiny fairly easily and quickly. Jareth was -not- making the adventure hard. Not hard at all.  
  
Why?  
  
  
  
"Damnation!"  
As before, Jareth had planned to make some appearance during Sarah's travels. If only to get on the child's nerves. Yet after visiting Azurmandi he had decided to keep a closer eye on the girl without making himself known. He appeared in his Owl form on the Far Coast where he had instructed the horses to run to, counting on Hoggle or Didymus to recognize the Aughiskies for what they were. Those two should have been able to understand you only had to say where you wanted to go, to make them go. But something had gone very, very wrong.  
  
The Far Coast was a desolate place, a strip of land near the Edge of the World, some sand dunes and a few wind twisted trees the only marks in a land of hard grasses and rocks. Many seagulls nested here, but their lonely cries were the only sounds of life here. Besides the rabbits and these birds, no one came here and nothing dwelled here.  
  
Usually.   
  
Both the sea and the wind were eternal and ever changing shades of gray. In the distance, an isle lay before the coast and Jareth could spot the little craft of the ferryman not braving the waves but gliding over them towards the coast. Mistakenly thinking the Goblin King a weary traveler seeking transport over sea.  
  
Jareth had only found the hay-wagon near the shoreline. The cart was badly damaged, axle broken, horse gear ripped to shreds or chewed through. The ghost horses had freed themselves from both their burden and his spell- And where no-were to be found. They had vanished into the waters as was in their nature. Jareth had lost them.  
  
But the state the cart was in made Jareth terribly worried about the fate of its passengers- it did not look as if they had had the rather comfortable ride he had imagined for them- So where -were- they!  
  
Jareth conjured up a crystal and peered inside- he quickly found Ludo and Ambrosius. Astonished he had to conclude the other three were not with them and when he tried to focus on Sarah, all the powerful magician found were mists. Angrily he threw the crystal to the ground to smash it- but it simply bumped on the sand and lay there half-buried and already forgotten.  
  
"Somebody is working against me-"  
Who would dare. Who would have the -power-!  
  
Jareth reached deeply inside himself, concentrating on two green eyes brightly sparkling with a lust for life and wonder. The King felt himself filled with questions and marvel and knew they were the emotions of the child as she experienced them that moment- there also was a sadness and an odd anger he could not place- But the subtle traces where there, undeniably and vibrant. She was alive! Now to find the child! Jareth smiled to himself as he faded into his cloak, preparing to take his owl-form and search the land in flight and with eyes instead of magic. The trouble he -again- had to go through for this girl! It was infuriating. When was the last time he had been truly worried about anything? Had she herself found a way to block him? He would not put it past her. He chuckled and quoted himself mockingly, just before taking to the sky.  
  
"How you turn my world- you precious thing!"  
  
From behind the dunes, belly in the sand, a man and a whimpering old dog lay in hiding. The man had small and very dark twinkling eyes, taking in the Kings inquest with a mighty curiosity. His hair was an unkempt mass of gray strands, falling in an unruly curl over his forehead, his face wrinkled by age and smiles. A rather square nose and ears too big for his head gave him a comical appearance. He was dressed in a shaggy colorful cloak that seemed far too large for the little man.  
"Well Dog," he said to the cowering old brown and gray hound beside him. He had a pleasant baritone, schooled and cultured and a little hoarse from overuse.   
"Seems we best stick around a while. I just -know- there is a story here!"  
  



	8. The Bridge

Disclaimer: not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy of the movie), and Monty Python and the Holy Grail', copyright The National Film Trustee Corporation Limited. I guess the Jim Henson Company owns "The Storyteller", please correct me if I am wrong. No copyright infringement intended. Not making money of this.   
  
Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness, thank you Pythons for being so marvelously loony.  
  
Gnome references inspired by Mr. David Bowie's 1967 song 'The Laughing Gnome". No copyright infringement intended, just being an inspired fan here.  
  
  
Enjoy  
  
Ramowen  
  
  
  
Diamond Tears   
  
Chapter 7. The Bridge  
  
A turn, another turn and yet another. Finally the exit to the caverns became visible by an angry slit of daylight in the distance. The weary travelers steeled themselves against the cold draft, but poor little Fred did not seem able to stop shivering.  
  
"Are you cold, Fred?" asked Sarah concerned.  
  
"Nah- just bloomin' scared! I'd like te go 'ome now, if that's all the same te ye lot."  
  
So they said their good-byes and promises to visit again. Fred went back into the darkness with only his little light to guide him, singing and chuckling and apparently relieved to be going the other way. He had left his new friends their lanterns as a small gift, since it would be dark soon this side of the mountain.  
  
Sarah, Hoggle and Sir Didymus emerged on a narrow ledge, immediately facing the plummeting Gorge of Eternal Peril.  
  
It was a dismal place, surrounded by high rocks and half hidden by swirling cold mists. Mosses and moisture made the gray rock slippery. There was a smell of sulfur and something rotten coming from below, together with the harsh cries of fighting scavengers. The sky was overcast and gave no point of reference; there were no shadows in the unearthly failing light. Sarah had to fight a bout of nausea at the sight of the gap and stepped back inside. Neither Hoggle nor Sir Didymus seemed much affected. Didymus dashed forward with a happy 'Tallyhoo!', a roaring smoking flame leaping up at the spot the knight had just vacated. Hoggle swaggered after him, pointing out the bridge itself.   
  
It wasn't a bridge- not by any standard Sarah was accustomed to. There were two ropes with some half-rotten planks at uneven distances attached to them and two more ropes a little higher to be used as handhold. The ropes had frayed and pieces of it hung down like tattered tassels. A fleeting moment Sarah was glad Ludo had stayed behind in the village- he'd been far too heavy.  
  
Unexpectedly a happy cry came from the bridge.  
  
"Didymus!"  
  
"Horacio!"  
  
Sarah and Hoggle looked at each other and said simultaneously: "Horacio?" Carefully they made their way to the old boys meeting.  
  
The Keeper of the Bridge of Death over the Gorge of Eternal Peril appeared to be a small one-eyed vagabond with half of his teeth missing. His good eye in hiding beneath the wrinkles of his face, his bad eye large and milky white as a full moon staring one down blindly. His blond hair and beard unruly and filthy, his fur coat torn and patched up so many times there was no way of telling what it's original color had been. Old feathers were attached to the coat, only adding to the man's haggard appearance. They reminded Sarah of another somewhat tattered cloak. One made of white owl feathers and soft pristine down. She wondered if this odd mage possessed the ability to shape change into a bird- what would he be? He seemed too small for a vulture. The Keeper's hands were covered with old gray bandages. He was clutching a necklace made of brown beads and white bone. Perhaps some kind of talisman?  
  
Right now the crumpled figure was holding Sir Didymus by the shoulders and shaking him, while the knightly foxhound pounded his small fist on the Keepers chest.  
  
"Didymus, Didymus my old pal- whatever made you give up -your- bridge?"  
  
"Oh, but my dear chap! Me, give up a post! My bridge collapsed!"  
  
"You let somebody cross it?"  
  
"Yes, old friend! Allow me to introduce thee to her ladyship Sarah."  
  
The Keeper stared at Sarah without saying a word. Sarah suppressed a very girlish giggle and curtsied to follow up on Sir Didymus' introduction.   
  
"And she is accompanied by our true friend, the brave Sir Hoggle."  
  
Hoggle shrugged and muffled something unintelligible, but he did make a slight bow in the general direction of the Bridge-Keeper.  
  
"But -why- did you let her cross!"  
  
"Well- the lady did ask my permission."  
  
"Oh well- anyway, those were your three questions, Didymus. So if -you- wish to -go- anywhere?"  
  
"Oh dear, that is awfully swell of you, my old chum."  
  
"As for you two-," the Bridge-keeper sighed, turned to Sarah and Hoggle and recited his lines rather bored, as if he had been saying them for forever. Which he probably had.  
  
"Who approaches The Bridge of Death must answer me  
"These questions three  
"Ere the other side he see!  
  
"Well actually- we do not know if we really want to cross your bridge."  
  
"Eh?"  
  
"You see, we really came to ask -you- some questions."  
  
"Eh?"  
  
Alright, flattery attack.  
  
"You see sir, Didymus told us of the great wisdom and knowledge you poses in order to keep questioning all the people who would wish to cross the bridge. And I really need to know-"  
  
"Stop!"  
  
The mage seemed truly shocked by the girl's words.  
  
"The last time anybody asked -me- something I found myself back down there!" Horacio pointed at the Gorge and really seemed upset. "I can't answer anything right here- If I don't know Ill be climbing all the way up again! And do you know how long it takes to get of out a bottomless pit!"  
  
Before Sarah could say anything the mage lifted his hands in an averting gesture and said: "Never mind answering that one girl- that one was rhetorical- on the house." He beckoned the three to a spot a little away from the bridge, looked over his shoulder and nodded, judging the distance to the bridge to be safe.  
  
"Alright, girl. What do you wish to know? You have three questions. What will they be."  
  
"You are very kind sir."  
  
"You're a friend of a friend. In the old days one did anything for a friend. I'm glad to see you three have not forgotten."  
  
Didymus nodded happily, Hoggle frowned and Sarah asked: "What is a s'Quaerra?"  
  
"An Earth dragon."  
  
"Oh boy." said Sarah.  
  
Hoggle sighed: "Damn you Jareth."  
  
"What does the King have to do with this?"  
  
"He is the one that sent me on a quest to get one of the blue eyes of the red s'Quaerra!"  
  
Sarah turned and kicked a pebble away to vent some of her sudden anger.  
  
"A dragons eye! How in the world am I supposed to get me a dragons eye!"  
  
"Is that a question?"  
  
"No- but this is: where can I find that dragon?"  
  
"Well..." The Bridge-keeper grinned and nodded towards the bridge.  
  
"Damn!"  
  
"Oh don't worry girl- those dragons are not unreasonable and they have enough blue eyes. They'll give you one if you admire them."  
  
"I beg your pardon?"  
  
"Ask him how to gets one!" urged Hoggle.  
  
But Sarah had a more urgent question  
  
"Has the King ever set out to purposely harm anyone- I mean not in defense or anything?"  
  
The Bridge-keeper fell silent for a moment and Sarah's friends looked at her in amazement. That was not a very relevant question, now was it?  
  
But somehow Horatio understood. He closed his eyes- searching for a way to be truthful. If only the girl had asked the question differently. Like -why- has the King ever purposely set out to harm anyone. But those were not her chosen words. So the answer was as true as it was damning.   
  
"Only his sister, child. Only her. Whatever action he ever took otherwise has only been in reaction. But with her, he did take initiative. He did made first strike.  
  
"Why."  
  
"Your questions are done. Do you wish to cross?"  
  
"Yes, I do."  
  
"I will take the lead, milady. Should there be dragons on the other side, I shall have slain them ere thee arrives!"  
  
And gone was the impulsive knight, up and over the bridge before anyone could have stopped him. Horatio smiled fondly after Sir Didymus disappearing tail and his trust in his friends to make it through.  
  
But the Bridge-keeper turned at Sarah with a vicious snarl.  
  
"I do not like to be questioned!"  
  
The change in the man was astonishing. Gone was all the friendliness. In it's place stood a cold being interested only in a kill. The one good eye stared coldly at Sarah- the poor devil had been guarding the bridge for so long it had eaten away part of his soul, taking all kindness and joy. He even lost any sadistic pleasure he might have known in throwing people into the gorge. Silently Sarah thanked whatever lucky star Didymus had guarding over him, since the little knight had not been so terribly affected by his long vigil at -his- bridge, even possessing the gift to kindle the last sparks of this creature's humanity.  
  
But with Didymus gone, those sparks had died.  
  
"So you are going to make things difficult?" asked Sarah.  
  
"Now don't you dares to do anything to Sarah! You hear! Or I'll-"  
  
"Hoggle! Please! I'll be alright!"  
  
"And remember, dwarf! You have to answer for your -own- crossing!"  
  
Sarah put up her chin and with more courage than she felt, dared the Bridge-keeper."  
  
"Ask you're questions, Bridge-keeper. I'm not afraid!"  
  
The Keeper motioned the two to stand a little closer to the gorge and began.  
  
"What, is your name."  
  
Sarah shrugged. "Sarah Williams."  
  
"What, is your quest."  
  
"To find the blue eye of a red s'Quaerra and take it to the Goblin King."  
  
"What," sneered the Bridge-keeper, "am I thinking right now?"  
  
And right now Sarah lost patience. "You are thinking that you are looking at some girl you can toss over the side like nothing! Well I'm not and I'm not going to get in there," she pointed at the gorge, " so you can just forget about that! Now move!"  
  
Sarah simply pushed the mage aside and started her perilous walk across the tattered and violently swaying bridge. The Keeper gaped at her like a dead fish.  
  
"Now how did she knew that?" he wondered silently- too wise by now to ask out loud so near the bridge.  
  
Then he felt someone tugging his sleeve. It was a fuming Hoggle, who wanted simply to move passed the mage and follow his friends. But Horatio turned quickly and started his litany of questions. Since he could no longer toss the girl over the side, the dwarf should have to do- and he should have a lot more trouble with the same question.  
  
"What, am I..."  
  
But Hoggle, with whatever patience he might have had lost by now, interrupted him rudely.  
  
"Ye're daft! that's what ye are!"  
  
"What are you saying?"  
  
"I ams saying that you are mad, bonkers, out of your bloody friggin' mind! You're a loony!"  
  
Now the Bridge-keeper turned really angry. "Do you know who you are talking to! You cowardly good for nothing turnip!"  
  
"Me no is Turnip! Is Hoggle! And I don't knows ye and I don't care! Now let me pass!"  
  
The mage stared a moment at the fuming dwarf, thought about what was said and silently counted to three on his fingers.  
  
"Oh alright- you may cross."  
  
Hoggle, oblivious of the danger he had just escaped, gingerly made his way over the rotten planks and -tried- not to look down. Horatio stared at him for a moment, then changed himself into his bird-form to scurry back to his warm nest inside the cave.  
  
In the Underground, Dodo's are not extinct.  
  
  
Hoggle found himself back in a place where there was no mist and where the evening was slowly settling itself over the land. He heard seagulls and smelled salt water. Looking round, he understood. He stood on a lonely strip of land known as the Far Coast. His friends he saw, in one piece and unharmed, at the water's edge with the remains of their ill-fated hay-cart. And high above, supported by clouds, loomed a lovely marble castle.  
  
"Look, this is what caused the accident," Sarah pointed out. She indicated the broken axle.  
Hoggle glanced at the cart, then looked back up at the castle and nearly tripped over his own feet in the sand.  
  
"That's one daft friend you've got there." He said to Didymus, indicating with his thumb the way he had come.  
  
Didymus nodded. "Thee shoulds have known him in the old days- tall, handsome, well dressed. A gentleman mage in all aspects."  
  
"The old day's? Let me guess, about three hundred years ago?"  
  
"Oh no, milady. The guild of guardians is much older than that."  
  
"You know, Sir Didymus, I never really understood this one- why, when you have all those lovely and magical passageways do you block them of!"  
  
"Well, it is the way."  
  
Sarah shrugged and inspected the cart some more, as if it held answers. Hoggle and Didymus exchanged a glance as if to say 'what do you expect, she's only human' and then forgot about it.  
  
"So, what is next," mused Sarah. "And why did that bridge bring us here and not on the island itself!"  
  
Hoggle stared in the distance for a while. The old gatekeeper quickly understood.  
  
"Because this is one of those pesky islands with a ferryman. And you don't gets to an island with a ferryman unless you're on a pegasus, a sea dragon, a griffin -or- with the ferryman himself."  
  
"We will have to pay our fare, won't we?"  
  
"I do have some gold coins. You know, this is likely the only time I am glad my poor Ambrosius is not with us. You see, the last time I tried to obtain transportation with one of those fellows, my loyal steed went of with his thigh-bone."   
  
"His what!"  
  
Hoggle grinned, while he pointed out a tiny speck of darkness floating from the island to the coast.  
  
"Those ferry-guys usually are very old men- or dressed up skeletons."  
  
"You mean like ghosts?" Sarah inquired aghast.  
  
"Yeah well, they usually deserve what they got."  
  
"And milady- never, ever take over the oar of the ferryman."  
  
"Or you have to take his place- yeah, I knew that one! So we will have to wait until he's here. By the way, what do you make of these?" Sarah held up the chewed through rains. It was fairly logical the odd horses had freed themselves by gnawing them. She simply needed to distract herself from the idea she had to firstly take a boat-trip with a ghost and secondly poke out the eye of a dragon.  
  
"I suspect our horses freed themselves."  
  
"Must have been water ghosts."  
  
"Indeed, good Sir Hoggle, indeed."  
  
"Dragons, ghosts- Any vampires around I should know of?"  
  
"Oh no, milady- not at Far Coast."  
  
Sarah hugged herself and stared up at the floating castle. "Good name for this place."  
  
Hoggle followed her gaze.  
  
"You knows them?"  
  
Didymus shook his head. "It is odd, you know. I have this feel I -should- remember. It is such a wonderful abode, it must be a noble and powerful magic user who resides there. But for the life of me- I cannot remember."  
  
Sarah also stared up at the castle. "If you don't mind me asking- but how long have you two been around? I thought that you," Sarah pointed at Hoggle, "were older then Sir Didymus?"  
  
Hoggle smiled and nodded. "I ams- but the dwarf folk remained longer Aboveground then his kind. And I was in some of the last groups that left."  
  
"So you all did 'walk the earth' so to speak."  
  
"Sure- but your kind becames too many. You changed the world. You stopped believing in us, took to gods that saw most of us as evil. And we did not like the way your wars took ye, what you did to the trees and the lakes. If it weren't for people like you, Sarah, we might not bother with you at all anymore."  
  
"I'm not that special. And the rest of us is not that bad. And there -are- humans here."  
  
"Milady, thou art one of the few who dares to dream. One of the few who dare to believe in something beyond what thou art taught to believe. One of those who won't give up the child inside because it hurts sometimes, or would be convenient if it were not there. And therefore, thou wilst always be able to reach us. And we thee."  
  
"The people that live here come from folk that came with us, or kids that Jareth and his kind stole and did not turn into goblins."  
  
"Changeling children."  
  
"And they are not so different from the rest of us."  
  
"Even if most of them have remained short-lived mortals."  
  
"So our worlds are not completely apart?"  
  
"They never will be that, milady. Never that."  
  
"I am so sorry you all had to leave because of us."  
  
"Ah, girl. Don't be. We have our place here and usually life is good. It is your kind that misses out. We knows you miss us, and our magic. You've schools now. And people that look at the stars with machines and think they understand everything. That is your way now."  
  
Sarah shook her head and stared up at the castle. "It's not -my- way. I don't feel as if I belong in that place you describe. My world has grown so cold!"  
  
Hoggle followed her gaze and shook his head. "No, Sarah, that's not real true either. If your place was so cold, how come it made you? You nearly gave up everything for your little brother. You're people know the magic of love and friendship just as we do. You just have to dig a little deeper and look a little harder sometimes. And sometimes you even have to say, 'Oi- here am I' instead of waiting for someone te come te you."  
  
"Don't give up on your kind so easily, milady. The bards in your world are wonderful. And all those who put pen to paper do bring a little of the magic back. Just as long as they care, we won't be forgotten. And the magic will remain trough those who dare to look beyond."  
  
Sarah sighed. "I always though of becoming an actress- perhaps I should be a writer. God knows I have found here enough to write about."  
  
Nothing came from above. The castle hovered silently, like one of the clouds it was carried by. A magical prop in the background only there to make sure Sarah would not forget this beach was not one of her world.   
  
On the other hand, a ten feet tall ferryman, dressed in a black robe, hooded and with his sleeves falling over his hands at his oar and in a little boat that seemed to float slightly above the waves instead of on them, was a dead give away to the fact that Sarah was not exactly in Kansas anymore.  
  
The Ferryman ignored the tide, beached his boat and waited solemnly. Sarah approached in dread, but as so many times before was far too stubborn to back out or down.  
  
"Excuse me sir, are you the ferryman who takes people to the island of the s'Quaerra?"  
  
The Ferryman nodded regally.  
  
"Would you please take us there?"  
  
The Ferryman nodded very regally.  
  
"Do we have to pay for our fare?"  
  
Two lights within the black depths of the Ferryman's hood blinked with a red intensity and with a deep, booming voice he stated: "Well, let me see what you got then."  
  
He put down his oar in the boat, rubbed his hands together, still hidden by his overlong sleeves, cocked his head an stepped outside the boat. He came to the travelers not at all very regally with childlike greed in the set of his shoulders and an eager attitude.  
  
But when Sarah showed her necklace, Hoggle his gems and Didymus his gold, the Ferryman almost nervously backed away from them.  
  
"I am so sorry, can't take any of those, so sorry."  
  
"But why," Sarah asked urgently. "If these treasures are not what you take as payment, what -do- you take!"   
  
Now -did- the Ferryman blink nervously at the castle, or did it only seem so? He rubbed his hands again. He hunched a little, as is sometimes the habit of tall people who would like to be smaller. It gave Sarah the impression as if he were doing is best to threateningly loom over them. With his booming voice merely bartering, he failed to do so.  
  
"You see, this is a very special place you desire to go to, so you must give me something extremely precious!"  
  
Hoggle grunted. Sir Didymus looked surprised and stared at the Ferryman with wide unbelieving eyes. Sarah crossed her arms in front of her chest and looked very bored with the whole situation. It would be dark soon, and she wanted to be on her way by then. Sleeping dragons had to be far more easily overpowered than wake ones. And she did not fancy to spend the night on the beach while the air was chilling already.  
  
"I need something, that is uniquely you. Gold won't do. Your treasure won't do. I need a pure thing. An untainted thing. I cannot accept anything less!"  
  
"Look," said Sarah, "this is all we have. Take it or leave it."  
  
"Then I must leave you. When you have found something, come back here. I promise, so will I."  
  
"Well I never!" exclaimed Sir Didymus, while the Ferryman stepped back in his boat and sailed off again ignoring the both the tide and the wind.  
  
"My sentiments exactly!" intoned Sarah. "Now what!"  
  
"Now," said Hoggle, "we finds ourselves a place to sleep, somewhere between the dunes and a little out of the wind."  
  
"And tomorrow we are going to find something pure. You know guys, for one short moment I thought Jareth was making it easy on me. For one very short moment!"  
  
The lanterns of the three came to life when the sun left the sky more and more. In the castle high above gentle light gleamed through the windows.  
  
Suddenly Sarah spotted a speeding glitter. From the land, a rainbow of darkest green and swirling purples, highlighted with silver, flew swiftly towards the castle. At one of the window's it seemed to take almost a human shape, though the limbs were out of proportion and the energies kept radiating of the being.  
  
"What was that?" asked Sarah astonished.  
  
From behind a warm baritone answered.  
  
"That, dear child, was a dark Fairy from the deepest most hidden woods. Not good company for the young and innocent such as yourself."  
  
The trio turned to be faced by a small, broadly smiling man with a somewhat square nose, ears to large for his head and an old brownish dog at his side.  
  
In his hands he held one of Jareth's crystals.  



	9. Once Upon A Time, Not Even Very Long Ago

Disclaimer: not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy of the movie). I guess the Jim Henson Company owns "The Storyteller", please correct me if I am wrong. No copyright infringement intended. Not making money of this.   
  
Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness.  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
Chapter 8 Once upon a time, not even very long ago  
  
  
"Magnificent, isn't she."  
  
The little man opened his arms wide, almost to embrace the sky-castle. He turned to Sarah, warming her with his genial smile.   
  
"And here she is. My word, I would have looked for you the world over, my dear. But I knew if I were just that little bit more patient the story would present itself to me. The young lady that is so much of interest to our King."  
  
With a natural flourish and feel for drama the man presented Sarah with the crystal he was holding. To her astonishment, she saw herself mirrored, on the beach taking the crystal from the stranger.  
  
"Oh my god- he uses these to watch me!"  
  
"Watch you, watch over you, whatever. A few hours ago the King stood here, appalled by the sight of this wreck, annoyed by the fact he could not find you, in the crystal that is, and discarded them both as so much rubbish. That is why I was able to retrieve it. I saw him take his owl shape and take flight, presumably to search for you between here and wherever the cart came from. I take it he has much mileage to cover and will not return here until the morrow. And after he left, the castle came. And after that came, you came, flopping out of thin air. This is the stuff that makes for a great tale! But come, you all. I have made myself a dismal little shelter and a roaring warm fire. I have some bread to break and wine to share. And if you like, we could share some stories too."  
  
"At least we knows the spell of the Gnomes is working," mused Hoggle. "He must have been looking for us when we were with them." Suddenly realizing what he had said, the dwarf pulled up his shoulders, rubbed his brow and sighed: "Oh my- he's looking for us! We shoulds move in with the Gnomes, that's what we shoulds do!"  
  
"But- who are you?" asked Sarah, clutching the crystal with two hands to her chest.   
  
Didymus glanced at the man with his one good eye. He could not help but feel a certain kinship, for it was clear both he and the stranger had known better days. The man talked as if he were used to talk and to do so for audiences. Oh how Didymus missed life at a court sometimes.  
  
"Thee art a storyteller, art thee not?"  
  
"-A- storyteller, sir knight? I am -the- Storyteller! I know all off everything and could amuse you for a year with each day a different tale without repeating myself and -still- have more to come. I have been showered with riches in the loftiest castles and embraced in the family warmth of the lowest shack. I know all the peoples of the nine worlds, and then some. I-"  
  
Hoggle sneezed. "And I ams getting cold!"  
  
The shaggy dog sniggered and the Storyteller put his hands in his sides and frowned.   
  
"Ah well, perhaps you are right. There is a definite chill in the air-" with that remark, he glanced up at the castle.  
  
"Come then!" He turned on his heels and Sarah followed him, Sir Didymus behind her and Hoggle closing their small parade.  
  
The Storyteller led the way to a hollow in the dunes, in which he had built a driftwood shelter of three uneven wooden walls and an old torn once white sail for a roof. It gave dry shelter out of the wind, but no more. For one night, it would be enough and the sight of the fire at the edge of the shack seemed a beacon of welcome to the weary.  
  
Sharing his supplies with his guests, poking the fire and all smiles and gentleness, the Storyteller spoke of a bet he once made with a king, a human king, to tell him a story each and every evening for a year. If he could, fame and fortune would be his share. He was even married for that year. But on the last day The Storyteller found himself with one story short and only some quick thinking and a lot of imagination had saved his life. But not his marriage and not his fortune. Forced to flee still, he had ended up in an old forgotten ruin of a castle and inhabited the one hall where he could burn a fire. There he sat, telling the stray that already inhabited the place before him all of his tales. When spring came, they both decided to be on their way, ending up traveling together in search of new tales and old ones he didn't knew yet. And so their journey had taken Storyteller and Dog to this place. Instinct had told the little man to wait, rabbits had filled their bellies and droplets of dew and rainwater had clenched their thirst. After a week, the cart with the Aughiskies had found it's way onto the beach and a few hours later so had the Goblin King. And the rest the travelers knew.  
  
Frequently interrupted by Sir Didymus and sometimes by Hoggle, Sarah told her story of her first visit to the Labyrinth, giving a somewhat abbreviated version of what had transpired after she ate the poisoned peach. Dog had fallen asleep a long time ago, Didymus and Hoggle did not seem to notice but Storyteller smiled at the girl knowingly and made her blush.   
  
Then Sarah told Storyteller of her illicit visits to the Labyrinth and the quest the Goblin King had given her. By the time she had finished, both Sir Didymus and Hoggle had drifted to sleep and the storyteller had grown pensive.   
  
"Storyteller, this whole adventure is becoming such a mystery. There are so many things I do not understand."  
  
"Like what?"  
  
Sarah stared into the flames, pensively.  
  
"Like- what is it with that flower the Gnomes think so much of? Why did it disappear three hundred years ago. Why did things here change so much three hundred years ago? What really happened to Jareth's father? And why does nobody like him? My friends told me some pretty heroic stuff about him- And he could have really hurt me when I was here first. But I won. And he let me leave."  
  
She looked up at the Storyteller.  
  
"Storyteller, why did he let me leave?"  
  
Again the Storyteller smiled a bit oddly, as if he understood things Sarah could not know.  
  
"My name," he said, "is John."  
  
He said it like a confession. Sarah suppressed the urge to say 'hi John!' in a loud voice and waited.  
  
"I was not born here, in this world. I was born were you were born. In the year of our Lord 1422. If there was some significance to that number it was lost to me. With these ears people must have held me for some devils spawn for my mother left me on the steps of a church and my caretakers ensured me I was evil. Than one night, in the summer of my eight undated birthday, I understood that nobody wanted me and I had better rid the world of my presence. I decided to jump the river. So I climbed out of a window and over the wall and found myself in the fields surrounding the city. The moon was full, the lake was near and I felt like walking before I died."  
  
The Storyteller took a stick and poked the fire some more. Sparks flew for a moment like fireflies, then settled for being ashes. John's eyes had been rekindled with a memory that seemed so unhappy but made his face lit up with wonder and joy.  
  
"When I neared the lake, I heard music so beautiful the sound of a singing angel paled. No church-bell, no choir in evensong, no lullaby of a loving mother could compare. And moving with the music, swaying on the summer's breeze under the pale moonlight at the side of the lake and over the lake half seen figures danced and danced and danced. Pale and slender, bright and passionate they shimmered in and out of my vision. Some looked like you and I, dressed in the finest of silk, the loveliest of velvet, jewels glittering, gems sparkling. Others were grotesque. Tree-trunks with faces and legs, but no arms. Creatures smaller than my hand, others as tall as the willows at the lakeside. Green creatures, earth creatures. Dwarves like your friend. Gnomes in scarlet and gray, laughing. Red fire beings knocking sticks together and even tossing each other their heads! All of a sudden I was found out and pulled into the dance, one of them! I could not stop, they would not let me. Hand in hand with the most beautiful of winged ladies and the ugliest of hunched hags I danced until I felt my hart would burst and my legs gave out.  
The sun came up, they all vanished in the morning mists and I fell asleep. When I woke, I was still a lonely boy, but the world had turned for a hundred years and al I had known were forgotten. When I came to the back to the city gate and told my story, the guards laughed at me and called me a rover and a rambler. Then they gave me bread and beer and allowed me in to join the 'other gypsies' that were performing on the market square that day. And on that market I found my spot, told my tale and earned myself more money than I had ever seen together. The gypsies with their traveling circus of acrobats and the dancing bear took me in and taught me much. Touched by the Fay I was, they told me. Lucky I was, they said. For forty odd years they gave me a job and a home and a family. Then I stopped aging. And the people who visited the fairs started to remember me. And they started to whisper witch and they started to throw stones and all of us gypsies and ramblers and rovers knew how things would end. Cursed I was, they said. With luck turned bad, they told me. But I believed them not. I left them, before the regular folk, the good burgers of any town would come with prayer and fire to cast me out of their existence and all I held dear with me. I went back to the lake and waited until the moon was full and the dance would be danced again. But this time when morning came and the mists claimed the dancers I held on tight and when I came to I found myself lying in a four-poster bed in a wonderfully rich bedroom. The walls of large gray stones were hung with priceless tapestries, bear rugs covered the floor and on a chair near the bed new brightly colored clothes had been laid out for me. Above the fireplace the coat of armor of a noble family had been carved into the stone and before the roaring fire, poking it, sat a goblin. It told me with much disdain, that my bath was ready."  
  
Sarah chuckled. What a life this man had led. "That must have been a sight to wake up to."  
  
John smiled and scratched his head. "Well, it was something else, I won't deny it. And after that wonderful bath and me dressing myself, I was led to a king's breakfast. Literally. It was the first time I got aquatinted with the royal Fay who rule this part of the lands of Myth. Or the Underground or whatever man whishes to name these realms. There they were. Lovely, wonderful regal and tall Queen Azurmandi. Hair like silken moonlight, golden brown eyes that sparkled with love and mischief. A pale pink gown that reminded me of spring and a smile to die for. And that King! His name was Erkon. A bit smaller than his lady and the handsomest male I had ever seen, slender of frame and a fine boned face with a vulnerable quality. He had short ginger hair, striped like a tabby tomcat and the gentles, warmest and wisest blue eyes I had or have ever seen. For his attire he could have been one of my gypsy friends or a pirate, although his clothes shimmered with diamonds and magic.  
  
They were wonderful. And desperate. All around the room goblins, small fairies of all sorts and four children were creating havoc and chaos and could not care less about the breakfast served, the kingly duties their parents had to go about or the lessons they had to learn that day.   
I was introduced as someone interesting from earth with a lot of amusing tales to tell and before I knew it, I was drafted as a royal baby-sitter for two adolescent Fay princes and their siblings, a Fay boy and girl twin. Time is something quite malleable for the Goblin King of whatever generation and his kin. When first I saw the fairies dance as a child, they had seen me, with all my qualities as a storyteller. Even if I myself had no idea. They knew what I now know, that my great-great-great-great-grandfather on my mothers side had been an elf himself, responsible for my looks and silver tongue. They had ensured me the life I had lived and brought me to what they considered as my true home when they judged the time right for me."  
  
Sarah frowned. "They must have been really something. But it doesn't sound very nice to me."  
  
"Nice? No, they were not nice. They were manipulative, egocentric, arrogant and selfish. And you know what? They were also right! I had enjoyed my life as a gypsy storyteller and I ensure you, I would have liked none better. If it was the choice again to drown at eight or to live as I did, I would have chosen my life a thousand times over. I have been happy. And lucky. My elfin blood keeps me ageless, my nature keeps me young. Although I grayed a bit keeping those princely brats happy!"  
  
"Jareth gave you trouble?"  
  
"No. Jareth was the silent one. The brooding one. No one could ever find him. He was always wandering the Labyrinth. Never to be found to learn his lessons to control his magic. The boy hated his schooling. But he knew the land, no doubt about that. He knew it because he walked it and his knowledge was better than that found in any book. Even if those books teach you their lessons by reciting them."  
  
"I wish I had schoolbooks like that. They could really teach you by putting them under your pillow."  
  
"You may not have liked their teachers. There was only one Jareth truly related to, the only person in the Underground he still may call friend. She is Nicnivin, Queen of the Bad Fairies, never seen by daylight. And -she- was the one from whom he was taught right from wrong!  
  
"The eldest of the princes was Bertron. He could not wait until he was old enough to explore the rest of the nine worlds. He was truly a wanderer and an explorer. Dandilyon was the artistic one. Always making things. Painting like his mother. Composing and singing like his father. He too was not satisfied in the Underground. All Fay can sing. He was exceptionally good, but no one took exemption- he was too experimental for most. But brilliant. Truly brilliant. Sometimes Dandilyon and Bertron could be seen with a very odd boy. A cousin of some sort by the name of Zirimayn. The boy must have had a truly gross facial distortion, even for a fairy, for he never went anywhere without masking himself. But I do believe the three had great fun together.  
  
Jareth's twin, Enalkyrah showed the most talent for both magic and politics. She was born first, Jareth second. And there starts the trouble that sprouted your questions. All of them.  
You see, it is tradition for the child that will succeed the king to be the third one, the youngest one. The elder two will set out to prove themselves to be worthy and never return. Usually because they find some fair princess in another kingdom to marry and rule there. Or the both find lodgings in the same inn and have their feasts until the final prince has succeeded. Bertron and Dandilyon went to earth, never to be seen in the Kingdom again.  
  
Now because Enalkyrah was born the first twin and therefore the third child, Erkon maintained she should be queen after him. Azurmandi however held the opinion that since Jareth was youngest, he should be king. Between the royal couple, this difference was only jest. You see, Azurmandi and Erkon loved each other. They loved each other with the once in a lifetime love only soul mates find. It was the kind of love that forgives all and holds the world together. The kind of love that heals the broken, stills the violent and gives life to the soil.  
  
Oh how they loved. Flowers grew in their footprints, birds sang when they passed and stars fell from the sky, simply to be near that love. When the Goblin King brought back a babe, they both decided whether or no the child should go back, be a Goblin, or be trusted to the one of the human communities. Usually it was the latter.  
  
The King was happy and the land thrived. And -that- was the magic that showed itself in the pristine white flower you saw with the Gnomes. I have not seen it yet anywhere. But its meaning is crystal clear. Today's King has finally fallen in love."  
  
Sarah lowered her head. She had to be sleepy, for her cheeks burned and she felt very warm all of a sudden. Yeah, that had to be it.  
  
"And may all the gods that are come to the aid of the poor soul he has chosen."  
  
Sarah's head jerked up and she gazed fiercely at the Storyteller.  
  
"What!"  
  
"All of those flowers withered and died. Disappeared. They did so the very day Jareth came to power. When the twins had grown and finally their day had come to prove themselves worthy of the throne, they elected to go their journey together. I do not know why exactly. My dear, dear child-"  
  
Again the storyteller poked the fire. He also put some more wood upon it.  
  
"What was a mild discussion between wife and husband had grown into a full scale war between brother and sister. I had long since left royal service and was happily making my own way through the Underground. I still love these lands so very much. But I was not telling you of love anymore- I was telling you of hate.  
  
No one really knew what went on in Jareth's mind. The silent one. The subtle one. But Enalkyra was a happy bubbly child. Always laughing and dancing. A treasure indeed.  
Jareth never showed the will to rule. Enalkyrah was responsible. She had a mean streak, no doubt about that, and the Goblins feared her. But the same could be said of all the princes.  
  
Somewhere during their journey, they turned against each other. Jareth tried to get hold of the magical sword Tyrfing."  
  
"Oh my god no-" Sarah whispered.  
  
"Then you know it. He got it too. But before he could make use of it against his sister, she imprisoned him inside a mountain and went home, with the cursed blade, to inform her parents about what he had done. To rid themselves of the blade Enalkyra and Erkon made a spell that would keep the sword imprisoned in stone forever. But before they could finish and say what needed to be said, Jareth stormed the castle."  
  
"Jareth -stormed- the castle?"  
  
"Oh yes. And he got in to. Ruined the spell and set free powers that would change the Kingdom forever. The spell broke out in flame and Azurmandi and Erkon, try as they might, were not able to put it out. While the parents fought to save, the children fought to destroy. In the garden behind the castle, brother and sister faced each other, turning day to night with their magic, poisoning the place forever. It is said Erkon tried to separate them. It is said that is when he died."  
  
Sarah could not believe it. Not from Jareth. He could be mean and he could be cruel. But he had been mean and cruel in the eyes of the spoiled brat she had been a year ago. The Jareth she knew was soft-spoken, subtle towards her and threatening. But he did not fight- he let his incompetent Goblins do the dirty work. He used peaches and crystals, not swords and spells. The Jareth she knew had bullied her- but he had given her the impression he'd rather seduce those around him to comply than push them into submission. She knew John the Storyteller was true and sincere and he had moved her deeply with his personal history. What he was relating to her now sounded twisted. But if they had been awake, Sarah realized, both Hoggle and Didymus would have believed John's every word. Just like he himself believed every word.  
  
"When all was over and done with, Enalkyrah had been beaten, the garden had died, the Castle Beyond the Goblin City lay in ruins and both twins -and- Erkon had disappeared.  
Azurmandi was in no state to rule. Dandylion and Berton both could not be reached, they were effectively banished from the Underground, left with no means to return. For the powers unleashed that day blocked the way to the aboveground forever. Only Jareth could keep the way open now. And he could only cross when somebody made a wish and the magic of both world were combined for this small effort. And it must be a mortal that wishes it cannot be done by Fay. Enalkyrah was forbidden ever to set foot in the Underground again."  
  
The storyteller pointed at the sky.  
  
"So she made her castle in the clouds and resides there. Tattered and torn and scarred. Hiding. She doesn't dare to go and meet with her mother for Jareth blocks the way. And the same the other way round. But I am getting ahead of myself. Jareth had disappeared and the Underground cannot survive without a ruler. He represents the Kingdom. His powers fuel the Kingdom and the Kingdom gives its power to him. He is its defender, the one that keeps it sacred and secret. When the King is foul, the land is foul. When the King is happy, the land thrives. They represent each other, need each other. He is the focus of the power of the land and without him, the magic drains away. That means that no king is far worse than a bad king. That is why when the old ruler goes the new one must arrive immediately. But Jareth had disappeared. And Azurmandi, unable to reach any other of her children, was forced to -beg- him to take the crown. He even pretended to be reluctant to take it. And so Jareth became our King. And although we need him and sometimes admire him, most of us despise him."   
  
"No."  
  
Sarah looked up at the Storyteller, whose kind face now was set in grim lines. Sarah had balled her hands into fists and nearly cried.  
  
"I don't believe you."  
  
"Can't you see the obvious. The true love of Azurmandi and Erkon was broken and died that night- no Flower of Life remained."  
  
"If that flower bloomed because they were a pair, would it not be -logical- it disappeared when one of them died! That does not mean Jareth destroyed them. Your story was so certain up until Jareth and his sister left the castle. From there you are only guessing!"  
  
"True. But there are preciously few who believe different."  
  
"Hoggle told me Jareth defends his people. Didymus said Jareth nearly died while taking out a Minotaur."  
  
"A beast that never belonged here. That was brought here."  
  
"So? You think Jareth did that as well?"  
  
The storyteller sat back and looked away, frowning.  
  
"No, actually, I don't. That would be more like one of Lepran's tricks."  
  
"Didymus told me about him. Or Hoggle, I'm not sure."  
  
"You should get some rest. You look very tired- we both are."  
  
"I did not mean to argue with you-"  
  
The Storyteller chuckled. "I had forgotten about humans and their logic. You are making me doubt and that is giving me a headache. There is however one other question you must find an answer to before you face the King again."  
  
"Which is?"  
  
The Storyteller regarded her curiously over the fire.  
  
"He has tricked you, twice. He stole your brother, stole you from your family, who are probably quite worried about you by now. He is making you travel all over the Underground.  
He is endangering you, and your friends."  
  
"Yes he is." Sarah nodded. She looked pale and tired. She felt tired. And very angry and sad. But she did not know if she was angry at Jareth, or for him.  
  
"What's the question."  
  
"Why are you defending him?"  



	10. Don't Squeal Unless You Mean It

Disclaimer: not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy of the movie). I guess the Jim Henson Company owns "The Storyteller", please correct me if I am wrong. No copyright infringement intended. Not making money of this.   
  
Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness.  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
Chapter 9Don't Squeal Unless You Mean It  
  
  
The wind had changed over the dark and eternal forest. A large bird in a tall tree turned its head almost completely, twice, to see if the coast was clear to fly of and go for the hunt. The peoples of the Kingdom called this bird of prey poetically the blodeuwedd, as was it's name in the Above Ground nation of Ireland for the legend of a flower faced temptress. Others might call it 'just another owl'. The large brown bird did not allow itself to be disturbed by the sleepers on the forest floor below, nor by the speeding white one of its kind high above in the clear moonlit sky. If it had any thought at all for the latter, the brown owl would have thought it foolish to hunt so high. No mice in sight, not even for their kinds view. Without sound it lifted itself and expertly made its perilous dance between the trunks, barely evading them on instinct, eyes to the ground to spot the tiniest movement.   
  
The sleepers down below were a snoring reddish brown furry monster with a saddled sheepdog cozily curled against its belly. The sheepdog dreamt, whimpering and spasming slightly as dreaming dogs often do. When the evening fell over the wood, the monster and the dog had found themselves a clearing a little away from the forest trail and had settled for the night.   
  
Until suddenly Ludo shot up, instantly alert, small eyes wide and penetrating. Ambrosius yelped his indignation at this rude awakening and Ludo simply grabbed his snout to shut him up. Taking the hint, the sheepdog shook himself free but made no sound.  
  
Ludo sniffed the air, whimpered and covered his nose with his paws. Ambrosius took a sniff with his even more sensitive nose, but found nothing amiss.  
  
A deer broke through the trees and into the clearing. There was a sleight panic in his watery eyes and he did not even notice the clearing's occupants. He just ran off, oblivious but for one thing. The terrible smell of the Bog of Eternal Stench drifting on the gentle breeze.  
  
Ambrosius had been exposed to the stench for too long to be hindered by it any longer, so he had no idea of any danger. Ludo, with some notion of what was to come grabbed the dog and ran for the road. Ambrosius kicked his paws and barked harshly, not liking his treatment one bit. Ludo ignored him and scrutinized the road indecisively. Then he reached up, put Ambrosius on one of the tick overhanging branches and went to the tree's trunk, hugging it close.  
  
Distant thunder could be heard, but the sky was absolutely clear. The Crystal moon gave the world it's eerie bluish light, the stars were never brighter.  
  
A slight tremor could be felt in the earth, gently swaying the grass and the closed wildflowers. The tremor grew in it's intensity, the yesteryears leaves that had been able to hold on till now drifted down, a thumping sound came closer. The sound grew to a thunder, the earth shook with the pounding, Ludo vainly tried to make himself small behind the trunk, Ambrosius grabbed his branch and barked.  
  
They came like a flood, spilling over the road, dashing mindlessly onward only to get away. A stampede of deer and wolves, wild boars and unicorns, rabbits and hares, birds, fairies, trolls, skunks, snakes, foxes, badgers, ferrets, hedgehogs and a dragon.  
  
They all went past in mere seconds, but they had devastated the forest's underbrush. Ludo peeked from behind his trunk and stared at the wide path the animals and other assorted forest dwellers had made under the trees. A tortoise slowly hurried after all the others, noticed Ludo move and immediately hid inside her shield.  
Ludo picked up the small creature and peeked inside. He looked up, sniffed the air, which to his surprise was clearing. The wind had not turned, so there had to be something really strange going on.   
  
A new pounding was heard, together with the cracking of a whip and the shouting of men.  
Four horsemen came over the new trail, high on powerful black steeds. In fast pursuit of the frightened hordes whom in their panic would be quite easily captured. They were riding their horses hard and fast and took no notice of the dog in the tree or the monster in the shadows, focussed on the fugitives before them. They where clad in the darkest green and wearing odd masks looking somewhat like snouts with goggles. This powerful hunting force was armed with crossbows and whips and long rods with snares at the end. A two-horse wagon followed the four horsemen, a cage on wheels. Ready to receive any live prey captured. Its coachman a caped figure, totally covered in the same dark green material. Except for the all round glass helmet he wore, screwed to the metal collar of his cape. It looked like a face in a fishbowl, slightly distorted and somewhat insane. The man was young, in his late twenties, with short spiky blond hair, a slender frame. Then he was passed.  
  
The last time Ludo had seen this maniac had been on his knees, begging the Goblin King -not- to be thrown into the Bog of Eternal Stench. His name was Lepran the Hunter, who sold special animals to places where Ludo had never been. He also brought foreign creatures into the Underground and nobody really understood why he did what he did. He was one of the humans born to the Underground and people thought of him as slightly eccentric if not outright mad.  
  
The hunter had pleaded with the King, for if the stench of the Bog would touch him, he could no longer be a hunter. All would scent him and he would never be able to near his prey again. The King had told the human this was exactly what he counted on.  
  
But apparently Lepran had been more resourceful than Jareth had given him credit for, and now the stench of the Bog was working for him, not against him. Even if the smell set him apart from any other human being. A horrible punishment.  
  
Ambrosius barked. Ludo reached up and helped the dog down with one hand. Then he gave a small surprised growl. He opened his other hand and from one of his fingers, the one she had firmly bitten down into, dangled the small tortoise.  
  
Ludo held his hand before his face and gently shook it.  
  
"Wret me gown, oe igiod!!"  
  
"Hrm?" Ludo questioned?  
  
The tortoise just looked very angry at the monster. Ludo decided it probably was happier on the ground, so he held his hand close to the soil and the tortoise opened her beak and started spitting and coughing to clear her mouth.  
  
"You taste ghastly, do you know that!"  
  
"Ludo ouch." Said Ludo, putting his finger in his mouth. "What you say to Ludo?"  
  
"Aw, Ludo, is it. Well, I'm Tina and now don't you go making any TT jokes- all right! Gosh I wish my mother had called me Marylyn, Or Johanna or something. Even Mary Sue would have been better. And I said: 'Let me down, you idiot!'"   
  
"Seen brother?"  
  
"Honey, I have ten brothers. So which one do you mean? Tim? Thomas? Tiberius, Tony, Theodore, Trent, Tam, Ted, Templeton, or Patsy?"  
  
"Seen Ludo's brother?"  
  
"Aw -yours-. No I haven't seen yours. I mean I would have remembered any of you, you know. I mean, It's not like I would ever forget a big ugly thing like you. You're not exactly the type of thing a girl on her own easily forgets. All big and threatening and such, picking you up as if it is nothing, never mind what -I- want, what -my- wishes are."  
  
"Brother small. Not big. Has hat. Is with friends. Friend Sarwah. Hoggle."  
  
"Hoggle? Hoggle you say? Now that's a dwarf name, ain't it? It sounds like a dwarf name. Don't like dwarves. Usually no respectable folk among them, like me you see. You have to keep up your standards, you know. The people you go with, the people you talk to. I myself only get involved with the nice people, you know. Upstanding, good people who know what is right. Not Dwarves."  
  
"Seen dwarf?"  
  
"Seen dwarf. Now that is what I mean- You have to ask: 'My dear lady, cause I -am- a lady, did you perhaps happen to see a dwarf of late, and if so could you please direct me in the way he went.' Now that would have been a polite way to ask and-"  
  
"Seen! Dwarf!"  
  
"You know you are hopeless, it is so rude to interrupt! And yes I did see a dwarf back there. But I would not go that way. Never go that way!"  
  
Ludo turned to backtrack the stampede in the hope Tina's dwarf might be Hoggle. Ambrosius barked. He did not like the way Ludo took. It was not the right one, it smelled nothing like Didymus, Sarah -or- Hoggle. Reluctant to remain on his own, the dog followed the monster.  
  
"Ai- AI! Nobody listens to me! It's bad form, bad form! You are walking straight to that camp if you go that way! Aw- nobody ever listens to -me-." The tortoise set of to the intact underbrush and disappeared muttering and complaining.  
  
  
The moon made the path created by the stampede all too visible. Since the forest floor was moist, little muddy puddles had appeared in the tracks. Ludo was oblivious to them and walked right through them. Ambrosius evaded as many as he could, but he could not prevent his paws to get dirty. He missed Didymus and wanted to be brushed and cuddled and fawned over as usual. He whined unhappily. Ludo grunted in sympathy.  
  
Suddenly they heard voices. Harsh unkind voices. Laughter that held no pleasure and the cracking of a whip. A high pitched squeal followed immediately, and more laughter after that.   
  
Somebody was not acting very nicely. Ludo looked down at Ambrosius, Ambrosius looked up and together they left the path to try to near this `camp' unseen.  
  
Another clearing, much wider than the one vacated by Ludo and Ambrosius. The humans had indeed made their camp here. A dwarf and two men lay asleep near the fire. There was a round yellow tent, boxes everywhere and three more cage-like carts.   
  
In one of them, a very large animal lay hunched, drowsily staring up at the two guards pestering him. It must have been some odd bird, for all the monster and the dog could see of it were a mass of brown and reddish striped feathers. It whimpered softly. The cage could have housed four lions easily, but this animal almost burst out of it.   
  
Two guards were awake. They prodded the animal with the hard backs of their whips and made crude remarks to each other, mainly over how much this beast would give them in cash.  
  
Ludo's heart went out to the imprisoned creature, for he knew all to well what it was to be in a helpless position being tormented by creatures like these. Goblin or man, in cruelty they appeared not very different.  
  
Ambrosius felt the anger in his companion, and slowly crept a little deeper away in the shadows.  
  
Ludo did not think, since he was no thinker, but swaggered into the clearing. He howled and walked straight at the guards, ignoring their cries to halt. Ludo pushed them aside, tested the bars of the cage and found they would not buckle. Then he felt the sting of a whip on his back and saw himself faced with four men, two a bit sleepy with no shoes on their feet and swords in their hands. In the background the dwarf was aiming a crossbow.  
  
The men shouted at Ludo and neared him from all sides. They told him to surrender, they yelled what a prize had walked into camp and how pleased their master would be. They made a little space for the trajectory of the dwarf's arrow.  
  
Ambrosius was a cowardly dog, but also an intelligent one. He realized that on his own, he would never find back his master. He realized the strangers wanted to capture his large friend, the one helping him to find Sir Didymus. And from the fighting experience with his overzealous master he also realized that the Dwarf was about to shoot Ludo with a poisoned dart, probably to drug him as they had drugged the being inside the cage.  
  
So he circled the camp unseen and just before the dwarf took his shot, the dog jumped him.  
  
The dwarf yelled, fired his shot wild and hit one of the swordsmen in the buttocks. The man screamed and fell, face down and out for the rest of the night. Ludo howled and made a wide arch with his arm, hitting the other now advancing swordsman against the cage. The man lost his weapon and tried to grab for it, dazed by the blow. The other two men cracked their whips and drew daggers, but suddenly they were pelted by a multitude of tiny sharp pebbles. Their shins were attacked by slightly bigger rocks and they started jumping top avoid them. Ludo let his gigantic fist come down on the head of one of the men and he joined his shot comrade on the forest floor. Ambrosius kept his stance over the cowering dwarf and barked as if his life depended upon it. Together with Ludo's howling the racket was enough to drive any sane man crazy. The first swordsman finally grabbed his blade. A large stone hit it out of his hand. Wide eyed he stared at it, jumped up and took to his heels to hide inside the relative dark of the trees.  
  
Last man standing, the remaining guard dropped his whip and dashed towards Ludo, dagger aimed at the monster's heart. Ludo stepped aside. A rock split the soil under which it had been buried for hundreds of years and came up just before the mans foot. He tripped, fell and grabbed one of the bars of the cage behind Ludo. The hand with the dagger in it slipped through the bars and the sharp thing pricked right through the feathers, startling the creature inside to full wakefulness. It shot up, burst through the roof of the cage and squealed a high pitched angry scream. Seeing their prisoner freed was too much for the more courageous of the guards. He picked himself up, dropped his dagger and ran.  
  
Ambrosias jumped away from the dwarf and into the forest. Ludo looked up with calm curiosity. The dwarf scrambled to his feet, yelled that the hunters and his master surely would have heard them and could return any moment. Then he too took to the shadows.  
  
The creature from the cage stared groggily down at Ludo. It had a sharp black bill with even sharper teeth in it. Intelligent yellow eyes stared down on the suddenly dwarfed monster. The mass of reddish brown striped feathers stood wild on the creatures eagles head. His chest and back were covered in them. But it had the body and claws of a gigantic black lion and when it stood on it hunches, it flapped wings that blocked out the moon.  
  
The creature jumped out of the broken cage but fell through its legs immediately upon touching the ground. It moaned groggily.  
  
Ludo stepped up to its head.  
  
"Me Ludo."  
  
"Oh?" the creature answered.  
  
"Me no like cage."  
  
The creature almost seemed to smile with its beak.   
  
"Me Ash. Me griffin."  
  
Ludo smiled broadly. "Ash friend?"  
  
Ash blinked. Then nodded. Ludo put his large arms around the neck of the dazed griffin and hugged him. The griffin clawed the ground and coughed.  
  
"Not so tight- please!"  
  
Suddenly Ambrosias came running back into the clearing, saw Ash, tried to stop himself, could not and slipped to halt against Ludo. He jumped up and behind the monster. Ludo pointed at Ash.  
  
"Is Ash. Is friend. No being afraid."  
  
"Arf." said Ambrosias quietly. Then he held his head a little up. Lifted his ears and seemed to remember why he had come running back to Ludo. He started barking wildly.  
  
Ludo looked around him as if to decide which way to run was best.  
  
"No-" said Ash. "Not there," he indicated with his high and shrill voice. "Climb back!"  
  
Ludo just stared at the griffin for a moment.  
  
"Me fly. Very high. Over trees. We safe!"  
  
Ludo grabbed Ambrosius. Ambrosius squirmed and yelped. Ash went through his paws, belly to the ground. Ludo made himself comfortable between the feathers on Ashes back and held on. The griffin spread his gigantic wings and lifted himself straight into the air, lost control to the drug that was sill in his system. Ambrosius barked, Ludo just looked startled, but made no sound. Ash tried again, squealed himself to get his wits together and flapped his wings. This time he had enough control and soared up, higher and higher, until they were above the trees and could no longer be seen from the ground.  
  
Moments later the hunters swarmed the clearing, but they could only curse at the empty cage and their fallen comrades.  
  
Lepran reached the place last. They had lost their prey upon returning. And now it seemed they had lost their earlier prize as well.  
  
"No unicorn- No griffin!" he hissed.  
  
"Could this be the work of the King, sir?" one of the hunters asked his master.  
  
The reply came somewhat muffled trough the glass bulb Lepran wore to keep his stench to himself.   
  
"No- the spell I bought from the witch still protects us from him. Besides, he is much subtler. He would not have wrecked my cage. Or fled. We seem to have made ourselves some new adversaries." He pointed at the two unconscious men.  
  
"Take care of them. They will tell, in the morning."  
  
They'd better.  
  
  



	11. The What Has Been

Finally I have shoved it out of my house. That dreaded Writers Block Fairy I could not get rid of! Darn! But it's gone now, and I am back. Yippee!  
  
I would like to thank all you wonderful reviews who have been kind enough to comment my story. It means a lot to me to be able to share this tale with you, and I am grateful for the way it has been received. Please do not forget to praise my muse whomever she (or in -our- case, he?) might be.   
  
Disclaimer: not mine, copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy of the movie. I guess the Jim Henson Company owns "The Storyteller", please correct me if I am wrong. No copyright infringement intended. Not making money of this.   
  
The song of the drunken Goblins consist mostly of lines taken from Mr. David Bowie's 'Alabama Song'. It's last line comes from a song from The Dubliners, called 'Whiskey In The Jar."  
  
The song on the top of the tower is mine.  
  
Thank you Mr. Jim Henson way up high for creating such loveliness.  
  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
Chapter 10The What Has Been  
  
  
The Fae exist by the light that shines from within. Although they might reflect the hopes and dreams of those who summon them, they themselves are no reflection. They simply are, complex creatures as they may be, like the forces of nature.  
  
Even those whom humanities standards may depict as evil are far removed from true evil. As said, they simply are. The river may bring life to her banks and make fertile and alive the crops of those who dwell alongside, gently curving its way to the ocean. Or she may drown the countryside when storm and rain batter the land and all who dared to trust her feel their spirits wrenched from their bodies in her cold dark embrace. It is the way of man to look at her this way or that way. To have man's dreams reflect upon her shiny surface, fractured by waves and wind into bliss or nightmare.   
  
The river only flows, nothing more.   
  
Evil exists in those who use their light only to the advantage of themselves, planning, plotting. Lost to the now. Unnatural. Manipulative towards their own kind.  
  
When the Glanconer Love Talker acts true to his nature, he, with his onyx black eyes and both charming and charmed smile, is lure to the unwitting lady who walks the twilight path. With his words sweet as honey, he will seduce her into a kiss and all that follows. She may live to tell, who knows? She may treasure the experience for the rest of a long and happier life. Or she may wither away after he has gone, no man able to fulfill the woman's heightened desires. Doomed to fade into a lonely grave after being so thoroughly spoiled to the world.  
  
Again, it is the human who chooses to interpret the experience this shadow dancer brings. He only gives when she gives in.   
  
Sparkling dark purple hues and nightly forests greens, glittering like silver moonlight, he came as promised in twilight. She, the enchantress Enalkyrah, had him wait 'til far past the thirteenth hour, as expected. The minion came to the mistress, but the mistress had to show whom was master. Glanconer anticipated the behaviorisms and never countered them. They showed the mighty Fae witch's uncertainties and as long as the dark one new of those, he knew he had less to fear. For Glanconer did fear, obeyed out of fear yet never would show fear. So she could believe him a loyal accomplice, bought and paid for with the rewards she bestowed upon him.   
  
Dark Glanconer waited in the majestic marble hall that was Enalkyrah's throne room. With the large gothic windows at the side where he had entered, the huge crystal doubled doors guarding the entrance, opposite the far away marble carved throne with it's red silk pillows with the golden tassels.   
  
The wall facing the windows seemed blank marble, crisscrossed with fine lines and pastels. Until one stared long enough at those lines and pastels to see faces appear behind the minds eye inside imagination.   
  
Screaming, crying, frozen in their last suffering. So dangerous this highborn lady, so cold.  
  
Round pillars rose to the domed roof, wide enough to be closely encircled by ten men at least. The dome itself carried by golden beams, inlaid with mother of pearl. Some of the smaller young clouds drifted there, softly humming and still searching for a way out. With the Glanconer's entrance their tune changed into the song that lingered around him.  
  
Glanconer's light had again taken form. With feline grace the slender ageless youth circled the hall, limbs slightly too elongated, sharp faced, purple and green shining skin. Naked. Lovelier than most. Restless. A forest fairy trapped.  
  
Enalkyrah appeared suddenly, as always veiled in gray and sorrow. Glittering jewels captured within her gown resembling dew or perhaps tears unshed. Gracefully and tall she neared her underling directly and without the traditions of courtly mannerisms.  
  
"Glanconer."  
  
"Milady."  
  
He bowed deeply. She nodded and abruptly declared the why of her calling.  
  
"There is a woman-child who seeks passage through the Labyrinth and out of the Underground. She thinks she wishes to escape my brother. She thinks the silly thoughts of a girl trapped inside an unawakened woman's body. One word, one touch and she is his for eternity. She must be saved from that fate."  
  
"So I must seek her out."  
  
"Not as yourself. The Kings bewitchment of her is strong. She will simply see you as another and return to her ill-chosen path, or reject you."  
  
Glanconer smiled incredulously with one raised brow, his dark eyes unreadable.  
  
"Take his shape, show her his mercy. All of it."  
  
"Do her harm."  
  
"It will set her free from his spell, make her forget about him."  
  
"Make her hate him."  
  
"She is young and sweet and innocent. Steal that innocence and she is steeled for life."  
  
Glanconer grinned broadly now. "Always a pleasure to serve.", and bowed again.  
  
Enalkyrah waved at the air in between them. It shivered and thickened until it carved an image of Sarah.  
  
"She indeed is lovely."  
  
"She is accompanied."  
  
The images distorted and showed in turn Hoggle, Sir Didymus, the Storyteller and Dog, Ludo, Ambrosias and Ash.  
  
"A widely varied company."  
  
"The dwarf and the knight, the man and the brown dog are with her now. The others will be there when you meet. She will choose to face you alone. Wait for that. Than give her the freedom you give so well to mortal wenches."  
  
"She is so young."  
  
"She will be older when you meet. I care not for her little zoo, but come what may do not harm the man you saw and never betray you as mine. He is in good mind of me and unwittingly serves me well."  
  
"While Jareth's shamefulness will serve as well."  
  
Enalkyrah shivered with the mention of the King's name.  
  
"Remember, she is trapped and you are her freedom."  
  
"Yes, Milady."   
  
The smoky image turned to Sarah's features again. The Glanconer neared it somewhat and smiled a hungry predator's grin, bright red lights shining in his eyes in ugly contrast to his soft purple skin.  
  
  
  
A land serene, a crystal moon. Gentle light played over the now quiet Goblin City, it's amusing yet dimwitted subjects fast asleep. Except for the wakeful night-watchmen on the high rampart, inside the watchtowers, and the few patrolling the streets. The Goblins did not know why they had to guard their city so carefully. There had been a time before, when the old King had never bothered with such nonsense. But Jareth was of the paranoid kind, and so the Goblins held watch.  
  
This hour the streets were guarded by Demure and Tumble, two rather tall Goblins. Both had dressed up in ill fitting armory with a lot of dents and spiky helmets. Demure dragged a large sword behind him. It dulled itself upon the cobbled street with an annoying scraping sound, sparks flying. Tumble fumbled with a crossbow, every two steps or so holding still to make some adjustments and almost forgetting to put the arrow back. Then he had to run to catch up with Demure. Their armor clanked like an orchestra, but their voices were worse. Like most Goblins, Demure and Tumble sang hideous songs when drunk. Right now they were plastered.  
  
"Oh show us the way to the next whiskey bar (hiccup!)  
"Oh don't ask why  
  
"Why not ask why?"  
"Whadda ye mean, why?"  
"Well why not ask"  
"Well why not ask what?"  
"Why."  
"I dunno."  
"Dunno what?"  
"Why."  
"What?"  
  
"For we must find the next whiskey bar  
"Or if we don't find the next whiskey bar  
"There's whiskey in the jar!  
  
"That's not it!"  
"But I don't like this song."  
"Why?"  
"No- we've had that one."  
"What's wrong with the song?"  
"Don't like whiskey. Want ale."  
"Where?"  
"Cellar!"  
"Nah. Kook sleeps there. Has a big knife. Very big knife. Won't let us at it."  
"How d'ye know?"  
"Tried."  
"Throne room!"  
"Huh?"  
"Whole barrel of (hiccup) it."  
"But it's dark inside", Demure whined  
"It's dark outside."  
"The guards!"  
"We -are- the guards."  
"Oh."  
  
  
Jareth sat as if frozen in the large window of his throne room overlooking the Labyrinth in the distance, not noticing whatever went on below. No one would have noticed how relieved he really felt upon finding Sarah's little band, only the soft tinkle of the three revolving orbs in his left hand betrayed his restlessness. He stared at image captured by the single one in his right.  
  
Sarah. So gentle in her sleep. Safe next to the fire in the keep of a man he knew but too well and protected by her friends. How she had come to be at Far Coast was a mystery to him, yet it would be solved come dawn. No need to disturb her slumber. He should have known his feisty resourceful Sarah would be able to get there on her own.  
  
All lights were down this late, even the large chandelier dangling from the ceiling had gone to sleep. One would need the sight of an owl to be able to see in here. Jareth's magical orbs shone like pale fireflies, giving little illumination.  
  
In this dead of night, a song came to Jareth's mind and he whispered some of it, caught himself and smiled at his folly.   
  
"No, my precious. Not again a spell in these matters- no tricks, no deceptions. From your own heart all or naught. How about that for generosity, hm?"  
  
Finally, after the visit to his mother, Jareth had admitted it to himself. His infatuation with this particular little mortal. And how he longed for truthfulness from her. Nothing less. She would win this game, as he had planned. She would not let pass the chance to openly explore his kingdom, as any future queen should. She would meet him on even footing, tease him for the way he had lost his own game to her twice- While in fact she had only beaten him once. And in the years to come she would grow to know him, like him, perhaps even-  
  
It was not only young Toby he had lost during their sparring. When she had left, Jareth had realized only quite dimly Sarah had taken a part from him with her. A part he had since long forgotten. His capability to care, his compassion. His joy untainted with malignance. Yet he still dared not name his own feelings. Every time she came back to his lands he could feel a morsel of those lost emotions slipping back inside of him, touching and rekindling frozen fires. Words for the cold he only was aware of when she came to the Kingdom.  
  
And he -liked- it. Painful as it was sometimes to face himself, it made him view the very world differently with colors and brightness. Sunsets of gold and valentine evenings instead of boring drudgery. The King shook his head at his own folly.  
  
The girl had become far too important to lose.  
  
But now there were other matters to occupy his mind with. He threw away the crystal that beheld the girl and it changed into a white dove. The animal flapped its wings, uncertain where to go in the middle of the night. Jareth saw the animal's predicament, held out his arm to it and the creature gratefully settled on his shoulder. He chuckled a little surprised and felt a soft wing graze his face an instant. The animal settled down, closed its eyes and fell asleep. Jareth sighed. Not too long ago the dove would have fled away from him in terror. Not too long ago the Labyrinth's flow of magic had been a slow river within him, trickling down his consciousness making every use of it a labor. But not now, not anymore. Jareth had never felt so incredibly powerful as he had been in the few months past. The slow river turning to a waterfall, a torrent of power. Jareth had always loved the Kingdom, but only of late the Labyrinth seemed willing to cherish him. He did not understood why. It made him feel comfortable and confident, wrapped inside a lovers embrace. He slowly came to understand his father's calm in ruling this unruly place.  
  
Perhaps it just had grown on him. Perhaps the Labyrinth was finally letting go of the memory of the old king. Weather or not this was a good thing however, as of yet remained to be seen.  
  
Not too long ago, wasted magic would not have come to life to form a gentle animal. A burst bubble, perhaps some dust or glitter. But no life. So profound this change in him the girl brought him. The very light of his soul rearranged. Jareth would stop nor fight it. If it meant a bird like this could lend him its trust, perhaps others would follow. Perhaps Sarah herself would follow.  
  
But first things first. Jareth concentrated and turned within. He closed his eyes and his features again went blank, thin lipped, concentrated.  
  
What had made the Aughiskies bolt? What unseen power had been in hiding in the stable? What power had been hiding Sarah before she reappeared on the beach of Far Coast? What power was working against him!  
  
Deeply lost in his meditation, Jareth's posture slacked a bit. This was no search for personal deliverance, demanding discipline and consciousness. This was riding the waves of the past, steering the spirit from the now. Jareth's hands relaxed and the three remaining crystals slipped from his grip, tinkling with the sound of little bells on the stone floor.  
  
A gray image loosened itself from the entranced Fae, vaguely resembling his form. A spirit free from anything corporal, leaving the world of matter and energy far behind. Face deeply hidden inside the hood of a dusty gray cape, no shimmer of silver clinging to it. Out of even this world, capable of sliding in between the realities of time and consequence. Calling even greater magic to heed him, Jareth's astral self, his very soul, drifted from his unconscious form to venture unseen into the what had been.  
  
The throne-room had since long been vacated by the Goblins. Some of them had left for their small ramshackle homes in the city, others had trailed back to the rooms the King had given them in the castle. His servants and soldiers had always lived near him. But of late a lot of the city dwellers were forced to live in the castle as well. There had been quite a fight in the city. Against a girl who -should- have forgotten everything, a former cowardly dwarf, a former scaredycat beast and his stones and a forever brave knight. The Goblins remembered it well. That day had changed their lazy existence in one of hard labor. The King had forced them to clean up the city, throw out the cats and the chickens. And then to go and get back all the cats for they immediately had been faced with a plague of mice.  
  
The Goblins were rebuilding their homes into nice little houses. Still a bit out off alignment, but far better then the Goblins had ever had.  
  
And if they were not building inside the city, they were shoveling dirt outside to get rid of the junkyard in front. The waste of ages burned away in huge bonfires where the Goblins danced and partied around until the wee hours. Seldom the King joined them and even if he did, he hardly ever sang with them anymore. Jareth had withdrawn into himself, into his duty. Into a routine that did not exactly allow for sleeping through most of the day and hangovers.  
  
Although in the past he usually used his magic upon himself to cure him of those.  
  
The Goblins had no spare time left to go about the Labyrinth to pester its inhabitants. They ran the Kings errands, but beside those they were hardly seen. Rumor had it the peoples of the Kingdom did not mind overly much. They even treated the Goblins a bit kinder, off late.  
  
The Goblins had hated the King at first for making them work that hard. But eventually they had seen the benefits of their labor, and grudgingly complied with their Lord's wishes.  
  
Besides, if they did well, Jareth gave them beer.  
  
Unless he forgot.   
  
Tonight the King had forgotten. Demure and Tumble had put their weapons down at the castle's gate, rid themselves of their noisy armory and, boots in hand, sneaked silently through the deserted corridors. They found the door to the throne room ajar, one of the tinier Goblins peaking through the crack  
  
Tumble patted the little creature on the shoulder and whispered loudly: "Haya Heimlich!"  
  
As if stung by bees the little Goblin turned, his large round red eyes blazing, pushing back his pale pink mob of hair. Heimlich was the King's small round-faced bootpolisher, usually happily sitting at the kings feet. Unlike most Goblins, he really cared for his King and what he saw inside he did not like one bit.  
  
"Ha-issh!" the little one hissed. "Be quiet you- both of you!"  
  
"Wassup (hiccup!)"  
  
"You drunk!"  
  
The two larger Goblins nodded happily.   
  
"Well, you can't get in!"  
  
Demure and Tumble turned their heads towards each other, their big noses almost touching. They nodded to each other and Demure took Heimlich by the neck and threw him over his shoulder without looking where he would land. Heimlich yelped. There was a thud of something hitting a wall and loud swearing in a high pitched indignant voice.   
  
Tumble pushed the door wide open and immediately hurried towards where he smelled the ale barrel. There were about five mugs laying on the floor near the barrel, but both Tumble and Demure got hold of the same one and started fighting over it, uncaring if they would be heard or not.  
  
With only his pride hurt, whatever that might mean to a Goblin, Heimlich scurried back to the throne-room's door. Hesitantly he entered, his eyes on the silent figure in the windowsill.  
  
Heimlich had been staring at his King before those two drunks came. Jareth had not moved a muscle since the crystals slipped from his fingers. And even with the racket Tumble and Demure made, the King remained oblivious.  
  
Heimlich got hold of one of the King's dangling legs and climbed up. He crawled to Jareth's chest and sat on it. The Fae hardly breathed.  
  
"Oi!" the little one said and pinched Jareth's nose to wake the King. Standing up, he nudged Jareth's ribs with his feet. It woke the dove and it flew away in panic. But with the King, still no reaction.  
  
The other two finally understood something odd was going on with their King, forgot about the ale and even sobered up a bit.  
  
"Wassup?"  
  
"He ill?"  
  
Heimlich shook his head. The King did not smell ill. He crept forward to the slack face and very carefully opened one of the eyes.  
  
Even as Jareth's chest rose and fell with his slow easy breathing, his deep blue eye stared back at the tiny Goblin without life in it.  
  
Heimlich shivered.   
  
"Not ill- just nobody home." He lay a hand on Jareth's cheek and felt skin to cold to be healthy.  
  
"No- he's not ill. But laying here like this in front of the open window, he's getting there!"  
  
Tumble turned towards the throne, picked up the cushion he found there and Jareth's disregarded cape. Heimlich jumped from Jareth's chest and pulled the King a little forward. Tumble put the cushion behind him and together they covered the silent Fae with his cape.  
  
"Next time we have a king," muttered Demure, "I wanna have a -real- Gobling King. Not some ugly Fae with silly tricks."  
  
"You say that when he's awake!"  
  
Heimlich shrugged. "We've always had Fae kings. Don't see why that should change."  
  
Demure bent over Jareth and studied him. "Don't see why we should not! Cause pretty he ain't!"  
  
"Is for Fae."  
  
"Ugly Fae!"  
  
Tumble yawned loudly. With his eyes half closed he muttered: "Should put him in his bed!"  
  
"No!" shrieked Heimlich. "No- I told you! He just ain't home! If we put him somewhere else, he might not find his way back!"  
  
"Really?" asked Demure, suddenly very interested.  
  
Angrily Heimlich nodded.  
  
"You two, go now!"  
  
"Want ale!"  
  
"To the Bog with your ale! Out! Now!"  
  
Tumble shrugged and picked up his own boots and the ones of his friend. Without looking if Demure would follow, he scurried out. More afraid to have his boots stolen than anything else, Demure turned from the unconscious King and followed.  
  
Heimlich crawled back to Jareth's lap and stared up at the so very pale moonlit face.  
  
"Silly King.", the little one murmured. "This dangerous! Demure and others, they not -like- you. They stupid!"  
  
Heimlich stared outside. Once upon a time he had been a little boy whose father had been an unknown, a handsome passer-by, and whose mother had only been fourteen when he was born. His human family had not liked him and one day, when he was about four years old, his mother had made a wish. Then this marvelous magical being had appeared, taken him away and given him a home and a whole new family. Heimlich's body had been changed and he had forgotten his old name, but he cared not. All he cared about was the big man who had taken him away, patted him on the head and had given him a new family.  
  
Many Labyrinth born Goblins thought about Jareth as did Demure. But the others, the changeling ones like himself and Tumble were off a different opinion. Within them less than happy memories of before times lived, together with a residue of humanity in their souls no magic could completely cover. And since magic could never completely cover their core, it would never be able to completely control them either.  
  
Heimlich curled himself like a sleepy cat on Jareth's lap, unwilling to let his vulnerable hero face the night alone.   
  
  
  
At Far Coast, dawn was breaking. The first rays of pink sunlight kindled a red dream in Sarah's sleeping mind.  
  
"Just fear me and love me. Do as I say, and I will be your slave."  
  
She was back. Again. Inside the fallen castle with it's yellowish and gray archways and walls floating in the void around her and Jareth begging her to abandon Toby. Seducing her with her dreams.  
  
"Ohw, not this again! This has gotten sooo old!"  
  
The dream Jareth did not react to Sarah, his gaze fixed at a point behind her. Sarah turned and was faced by herself, hesitantly reciting the lines of the old play. She stepped out of the scene.  
  
"Definitely not real." The girl murmured.  
  
In front of Sarah, like marionettes played by an incredible accurate puppeteer, her dream-self and Jareth acted out their confrontation in stunning detail. The clock struck, Jareth fell into his feathered cape and became the owl. Both the dream-Sarah and the owl disappeared and some insane force pushed a reset button.  
  
From her spot a little at the side, Sarah watched the scene -again-. The only difference was that it started a little earlier, with Jareth appearing from the shadows and stalking her dream-self. The third time it started with the other Sarah falling down from the Esher room.  
  
But the real Sarah had seen enough. She was very aware now of the fact that she was inside a dream, abet a very real one. She could feel the stones under her feet, the air rush by and smell the scent of the battered ruin around her. But it was her dream, her conscious dream, and she desperately wanted to be in control.  
  
So she thought about flying and was lifted, going in the opposite direction of her falling dream-self. Sarah started grinning, this could be fun.  
  
Higher and higher she went, till finally she reached the Esher room. Even in her dream it was a dizzying site, but at least she had some idea of up and down. Jareth's voice sang to her from one of the walls where he stood half in the shadow. Her dream-self desperately climbed towards her elusive baby brother. For a moment the real Sarah watched the figures below her move and go about their business. Why was she dreaming all this- what could be the meaning of such a lucid encounter with her own mind? Or was Jareth sending her a message? Or a trap, throwing her of the scent?   
  
The dream-Sarah jumped the gap to the most secret of places of the Labyrinth. The heart of the Labyrinth. A ruin. Why a ruin? Why not a crystal, or a treasure. A mages study, a field or the moon? Why not a tower?  
  
Suddenly Sarah's being was taken from the Esher room and she found herself back on the highest tower of the castle. She looked round and saw a land she only vaguely recognized as the Labyrinth. It was magnificent.  
  
That place, that land, That magical abode of unicorns and Fireys. Green and blooming, strong and vibrant. Glittering in the sun, silver sparking. Where the walls could be seen they were high and straight up and whole. The fields and forest around the castle alive with birds and unicorns. A ruby red dragon with jade green eyes pretended to sleep in the gentle midday sun, while Fae children and Goblins played around it. A colorfully dressed small man standing by, shaking his head and laughing. All trace of trash disappeared.   
  
Turning round, Sarah faced the lovelies garden ever, with rosebushes of every color, willow trees and an enchanted fountain. Red and yellow and white doves flew about sparkling like flying gems, golden peacocks coed to their silver lady-birds.  
  
So peaceful and tranquil.  
  
Far behind the garden the land dropped away sharply and Sarah wondered what land could lie there.  
  
Movement behind her. A new element to the dream. A slender man wistfully staring out over the land.  
  
"Jareth?" Sarah asked. The man turned to her and shook his head.   
  
No, this was not Jareth, but his features were so like the King's it was beyond coincidence. This Fae was the one sending her the dream, it had to be. Firey red hair, dark blue haunted eyes, face paler than moonlight. Elegant pointed ears, silver earrings with tiny chains and little bells dangling from them. A silver on black speckled one piece jumpsuit, front cut low, hugging his body tightly. Shod in red boots, a matching short red cape over his shoulders attached to the suit. Jareth's sickle shaped pendant dangled on his bare chest. Jareth seemed taller than this illusive creature. Taller and older. There was a painful pleading expression on the youth's face as he too seemed to stare right through Sarah, not quite in contact with her. The eyes so much -older- than Jareth's.  
  
And than he sang, slowly, a sweet, deep voice with a rough edge that tore at Sarah's heart with its sadness.  
  
"Ancient oak and ash and willow  
"Flowers dressed in rainbow color  
"Magic sensed as yet unseen  
  
"How my heart yearns with the sunlight  
"To touch the darkened ground below  
"Cutting shadows through the leaves  
  
"High waterfall from mountain sprung  
"Turn to brook, turn to lake  
"Old mists rising moist on my face  
  
"I have not forgotten how it was, child  
"I have not forgotten the golden sun  
"I have not forgotten you, my love  
  
"Or how we danced  
  
"Gleaming in the silver moonlight  
"The spark of life everywhere  
"I am sure it still remembers me  
  
"My Beloved, you must remember me  
"Please remember me.  
  
Tears trickled down Sarah's cheeks while he sang his melodious song without rhyme. It was not for her. She was not his Beloved. But she knew who he was. From John's description it could only be one person.  
  
"You are Erkon, aren't you?"  
  
"The human spirit, even within the ones who choose to reside here, out of alignment and therefore indomitable. As those who are from the Kingdom cannot be subdued by the laws of logic. The core rejects it, it is unavoidable. Remember that. Make them one. Use it!"  
  
"I don't understand. Are you still alive?"  
  
"The halflings have the harder choice to make for they only see what they wish. They cannot tell."  
  
"Erkon?" Sarah waved her hand before the man's face. No reaction. He was with her, yet not. It was strangely unnerving and made the conversation a singularly one-sided one.  
  
"Protect my sons!"  
  
Suddenly something in the dream shifted and the beautiful Fae grabbed Sarah's shoulder.  
  
"Look around you for the truth! Trust not your eyes, not their words, but your heart only!"  
  
Sarah stood there as if paralyzed. She could not shake free of the Fae's grip that somehow felt more like a comfort than an attack. The scene changed. Sarah still stood atop the high tower, but the landscape had shifted to a more familiar one. Orange streaked sky, the Labyrinth still wonderful but more foreboding and somewhat tattered and a huge junkyard on the field where the dragon had played with the children.  
  
Desperate the Fae insisted: "What do you see!"  
  
"The Labyrinth, the castle- Erkon, what do you want with me!"  
  
"How old is the castle?"  
  
Then he disappeared. Poof. Gone and away.  
  
Sarah looked around, but could not find an answer to the last question. And suddenly she realized that was exactly the point. She could not tell how old the castle was. It seemed ageless. It did not seem as if it had been restored recently. Or even three hundred years ago. It had never been burned.  
  
The pressure on Sarah's shoulder increased and pulled her back to the waking world where she found Hoggle trying very hard to wake her gently.  
  
"Morning Sarah. Want some breakfast?"  
  
"Yeah-" she whispered and coughed to clear her voice. Around her, Didymus and Dog were stirring, while the Storyteller busied himself with boiling water in an old kettle above the fire, probably to make them tea or something. Sarah greeted everybody and then felt the strong urge to be alone for a few moments. So she left the tent and strolled around some bushes, hoping that nobody in that castle-in-the-sky would look down.  
  
Walking back again, Sarah had to admit she was awed by it. This pristine piece of floating marble, with its spires and dragons-  
  
Dargons?  
  
A blue creature with huge batwings, white horns and green spikes on his back dashed down directly towards her. Sarah ran for her friends, calling out her warnings.  
  
She did not notice how the winds had died, how the sound of the waves could no longer be heard or how the seagulls had grown silent. Unmoving suspended in midair.  
  
Dawn came to the King with a sharp electrical tinge. For one fleeting moment the gray of his spirit clung to his body, then disappeared inside. His eyes snapped open. The lovely orange dawn, streaks of receding purple and pink as the sun took the zenith, joyful birdsong brought to him on the sweet morning breeze, the clatter of the awakening town below- All was lost to the King.  
  
Heimlich jumped from the King's lap to the ground and when he saw the expression on his face, ducked behind a pile of forgotten rusty weapons and other rubbish. Jareth did not seem to notice, threw the cloak that had served him as blanket from his body and just sat there.  
  
For only the tiniest moment, time had not been. It had known a standstill al together, making the King lose track of the moment and all that happened within it. Someone had created a peck of time within time to do with as they pleased. And Jareth could think only of one other person beside himself who controlled that much power. Shivering, turning his attire to his blood red armor and swirling black cape, he conjured up a new crystal. To his relief he saw Sarah on the beach with her friends, doing some childish dance with Hoggle. He could also see the ferryman somewhat behind the girl. Good. At least her little adventure was progressing nicely.  
  
But his face twisted with anger, fear and hatred as he noticed the castle that loomed above them.  
Where the manipulator lived who had sent out a biting fairy. Who made little gnomes believe she was 'good' to make them accept a concealing spell. Who was the one ordering around that repulsive hunter!   
  
  
"Enalkyrah!"  
  
********************************************  
And yes- the 'nobody home' line was pinched from Scary Monsters (And Super Creeps).  
********************************************  
By the way, has anybody figured out yet on which one of Mr. Bowies alter ego's Erkon's looks are based? Come on, it's rather obvious, really (grin).  
  
Again, not mine, just fooling around, yickety yak yak. Will put any used images back where I've fond them. Cheech!  



	12. Enalkyrah

Disclaimer: not mine; copyright Labyrinth Enterprises (at least, that's what it says on my copy   
of the movie). The outtake of the poem is from "Stolen Child" by W.B. Yeats.  
  
  
Diamond Tears  
  
Chapter 11Enalkyrah  
  
  
Running, the twelve, five, two steps to her friends. Hoggle the one she always called first.   
Hoggle the one she bumped into, stumbled over and fell down with, barely avoiding the fire.  
  
He didn't move. Sarah shouted his name, tried to get the dwarf to stand, looked bewildered   
around and finally realized the silence.  
  
Even the flames seemed frozen.  
  
Like waxen figures her friends silently busied themselves with their rising and preparing   
breakfast, the driftwood shelter their eerie décor. The tattered once white sail roofing the three   
shaggy walls did not flap about in the wind, as it should, but hung suspended in mid-  
movement.  
  
John the Storyteller poured boiling water from a kettle into a pot through an old colander   
filled with tealeaves. Bending his body away a bit to avoid steam circling from the water like   
a frozen mist hanging over the pot.  
  
Dog yawned, front paws stretched tight, back and tail up. He would have been such a life like   
statue- Didymus brushed of his blue bonnet with his shirtsleeve, no dust on –his- knightly   
cap! But the specs he brushed off shimmered unwavering in front of him. And poor Hoggle?  
  
With some effort and a low grunt, Sarah pulled Hoggle in a standing position. He held a now   
broken bread in his hands. His mouth was open as if speaking and his gaze must have been   
down on Didymus. Sarah had turned him somewhat.   
  
Sarah stood, silenced herself, waiting, arms tightly around herself. Even facing imminent   
death while falling from the hay cart had not scared her half as much as the fear she felt now.   
For from the skies came a blue dragon and she could do nothing to protect her bewitched   
friends.  
  
No! Sarah refused to do it- she refused to give up! If this dragon had been sent by Jareth, than   
he would only delay her and -somehow- she should be able to scare it away or something.   
Sarah took one of the sturdier sticks from the fire to use as club, saw Didymus's rapier at his   
side, mumbled a hasty apology and took the blade. He had purchased the thing after Ludo   
defeated him and it was just his size. What made it a long dagger in Sarah's hand. It would be   
best if the beast attention would not be immediately drawn to her helpless friends. So Sarah   
stepped outside, afraid, pale, knife in hand.   
  
And if the dragon came from the witch- then where the hell was a Saint Georges when you   
needed one?  
  
Outside, Sarah already was awaited. About twenty yards from the shelter the dragon, as big as   
a dinosaur-, which it probably was, in a way, lay on his belly in the sand. Its paws were   
demurely crossed before him and he stared at Sarah with golden, somewhat slanted eyes   
without iris or pupil. The narrow head bent in greeting, small tufts of a darker blue for a   
goatee and mane. The dragon's scales shimmered a metallic blue, his enormous bat like   
wings closed over his back, hiding the pale green spikes Sarah had seen earlier. Two long,   
elegant white horns bent away from the head in one lazy curve upward from his forehead. The   
magnificent animal looked everything like a satisfied dozing cat. Sarah instinctively   
mistrusted the beast- besides, she was a dog person.  
  
"And what, little one, did you have in mind with that toothpick?" the dragon said in a   
decidedly British upper class baritone.   
  
Sarah smiled the smile she always smiled while pretending to be friendly and compliant   
towards Karen, coming about three steps closer and thus maintaining her distance.  
  
"Oh great, you're talking" she sighed, with some pretence of trusting relief.  
  
If the animal had had brows, he would have lifted them high on his forehead.  
  
"My dear young lady, I am no threat to you. Indeed, I mean to aid you, not to harm   
you.  
  
"Well, what would you expect," Sarah answered, tilting her head a little and pushing   
back her hair with her free hand. "with my friends bewitched and everything except you and   
me frozen!"  
  
"Frozen they only seem, little one. It is -you- who is under a spell. The gracious magic   
of my benevolent mistress, Enalkyrah the Enchantress, princess of the realm, in exile. She,   
like all of her brethren, the high Fae who rule over the Goblin realm, The Labyrinth and the   
surrounding lands, has mastery over time. You have been generously drawn into the tiniest of   
moments where time no longer has meaning. It holds. It cannot go forwards, backwards -or-   
sideways."  
  
Sarah crossed her arms defensively before her, blade pointing straight up almost toughing her   
face. It was good to hear nothing was wrong with the others- but it probably meant she herself   
was in some kind of danger. Some danger not provided by Jareth. So she'd better thought   
before reacting  
  
"And what is 'sideways' supposed to mean?"  
  
"To create an opening in the fabric of time and space and walk a distance of a   
thousand miles with no more trouble than crossing a threshold."  
  
"Fascinating."  
  
"Indeed."  
  
"And the purpose of this 'generosity'?" Sarah had to work very hard on repressing a   
mischievous grin. Perhaps the royal twins were a bit more alike than they cared to admit.  
  
"Your protection, child. The Princess wishes to discuss your recent troubles with your   
mutual opponent, the Goblin King. She desires to aid you in your quest, so your victory shall   
be in some small way her victory. But in order to safely speak to you, the Princess has to hide   
your conversation for all spying eyes, especially those of the King himself. Thus she has   
created this place of still time, pulling in only herself and you from the time stream. The   
reason why I am here is so you would be safely transported on my back to and fro. Come now   
child, the Princess should not be made to wait- and she is not so all-powerful she can maintain   
this spell indefinitely. Even if this is a place of timelessness, you two do not have much of it."  
  
"So Hoggle and the others-"  
  
"The strain to pull them in would be far to great- Please child, hurry. Climb my back   
and I shall take you up to the palace."  
  
To meet with Jareth's sister- anyone down here would sing their praises for such an alliance.   
Why then was there this little voice in the back of Sarah's mind telling her this person was   
probably even less trustworthy than Jareth? On the other hand- Sarah was stuck. Stuck on this   
desolate beach with no way to go to that dragon island- No way to go home- or even to the   
Castle Beyond The Goblin City. So what choice had she but to at least meet with the one   
person probably powerful enough to be of real help?  
  
"Oh. Well, Okay then." Sarah shrugged. She looked around, but saw no means to let   
her friends know where she had gone. She stared at the knife in her hand and pretended to   
casually drop it. Dydimus would look for it and they would at least know –something- had   
happened to her. Hopefully they made the connection.  
  
"My name is Sarah- but you probably knew that already."  
  
Pushing her hesitation and mistrust to the back of her mind, Sarah neared the shimmering   
metallic blue beast. He chuckled.  
  
"I am called Cheeoanchin-Syeche."  
  
When the creature softly spoke his name, it sounded like leaves rippling in the wind.  
  
"Sounds Chinese."  
  
"Not really, though some of my ancestors dwelled in a far Aboveground land nowadays named like that. But that was long ago. And my name is purely of the Sky-dragons.   
In your language it would be something like-"  
  
The dragon looked skyward, pensive.   
  
"It would be something like 'Summer's Breeze' I shall not be insulted if you use the   
translation, the name is hard for those who are not of my tongue."  
  
"Thanks." Sarah stood directly in front of the dragon, looking for a way to climb up.   
Summer's Breeze chuckled.   
  
"Climb my front leg, sit directly behind my neck, a leg on each side, and hold on to   
my mane."  
  
Repressing a shiver, Sarah did as instructed. She climbed the beast and grabbed two handfuls   
of thick blue hair.  
  
"Won't I hurt you if I hold tight?"  
  
The dragon stifled for a moment. He hesitated, as if looking for words.  
  
"It hurts a little, yes- but it is of no concern. I am used to that."  
  
"Something wrong?"  
  
"No- it is just- nobody bothered to ask me that, before."  
  
And with that, the dragon got to its feet, not unlike a camel rising. Hind first, Sarah was   
momentarily thrown against his neck and reeled backwards when the front came up. She   
swallowed when the batwings where unfolded with the sound of greats sails in the wind.   
  
"Hold on, little girl!"  
  
Sarah did. The beast reared to its hind legs, towering over the shack and her friends, flapped   
the great wings once, twice and lifted himself and his small burden up into the endless grey of   
the morning sky.  
  
Eyes wide open, little schoolgirl Sarah Williams with too great an imagination to fit in reality   
rode her blue-sky dragon high, up and away towards a floating white marble castle to speak   
with a princess who also happened to be an enchantress and a Fae. Suspended in a bubble out   
of time in a world out of place. And all this before breakfast.  
  
Sarah looked down, a little dizzy and saw the world dropping away. The shack of Storyteller   
becoming a dollhouse, the shoreline endless, curving land inwards showing her the whole   
strip of land named Far Coast. She passed several seagulls, simply hanging in mid-air, beaks   
open to shout their silenced screams. Although the movement of the great wings pushed the   
air, there was hardly any wind- the waves had stopped their rolling, foam dripping from some   
yet never falling. And far away lay the dark isle of the s'Quaerra Earth dragons with their   
eerie ferryman. Far away another land could be seen, the ocean was not as endless as it   
seemed from the ground.  
  
"Summer's Breeze- Does that coast belong to the Labyrinth too?"  
  
"No, little one. This sea is the border. On the other side you will find the land of the   
Centaurs."  
  
"Grecian legend?"  
  
"If you say so."  
  
"Are there Minotaurs over there?"  
  
"Some. You know those lands?"  
  
"No- just a guess. My friends talked about one, once."  
  
"There are many places, many lands."  
  
Many lands in the imagination of man. And Jareth's great kingdom only one of the many   
within the legends of Sarah's Celtic ancestors. With every beat of the dragon's wings the   
world grew bigger, Sarah's curiosity more endless- If only she had the time to explore-  
It was all so wonderful.  
  
The dragon flew over a dormant cloud at the entrance gate of the castle, and he came down   
silently within its mists. Sarah threw her right leg to the left side of the beast, trying not to   
kick him, and slithered down. She landed with bent knees and al little muffled thump.   
Through the damp she could see that the huge portal was slightly ajar, a clear invitation.  
  
Summer's Breeze pointed at the doorway.  
  
"Enter", said the dragon.  
  
  
A marble palace with a crystal entrance, the entrance three times higher than Sarah herself,   
yet too small for the dragon to creep trough. Silver door handles, simple rings, no talking   
faces, no funny knockers. But many tiny figurines carved in the doorway's arch, all around.   
Little demons, mermaids, elves and trolls. Human shaped beings with hoofs for feet or wings   
for arms. A man with the head of a fish, a woman with no head at all but eyes and mouth in   
the middle of her chest. Sarah shivered. She had seen this kind of images on pictures of old   
European churches- but never so warped or deformed. She reached for the crystal door to   
open it further, but pulled back her hand before touching it. Engraved crystal it was, one could   
not see through. Faces. Smiles, frozen in madness, more grotesque than any of Jareth's bubble   
dancers. Did she really have to go in?  
  
Yes, she did.  
  
Sarah sighed, pulled back her shoulders, and firmly pushed the door. It went aside without   
any sound or trouble. With determent look upon her face, she crossed the portal and stood,   
defiantly, face tilted upward, in the middle of the hall.  
  
This was no palace- it was a cathedral.  
  
The ceiling at least thirty yards up, domed, with pale unclear crystal windows carrying a misty   
light to below. There were almost no shadows, yet the light made for a dizzying distortion in   
the air without one being able to pinpoint its source. On the floor, in grey and white marble,   
an intricate intertwining pattern was laid out, with curves and knots and loops that went   
nowhere but back into the pattern. The walls rose high in the circular room, again white   
marble and no decorations but for the silver beams supporting the roof. There were a few   
niches with soft glowing globes, lamps that grew brighter with dimming light.  
  
A hallway leading left, a hallway leading right and a huge staircase in front, with again two   
hallways at either side.  
  
The place was not empty. The main hall was filled with small flying fairies, hastily going   
nowhere, suspended in timelessness, as was the rest of the world. They were all about the size   
of the creatures Hoggle liked to destroy, perhaps this was the place they came from. Some   
carried things like food or cloth, as if busy with tasks of housekeeping. A somewhat larger   
creature seemed to herd small clouds up to a window to rain them spotless. On the floor,   
dwarf like beings dressed as seventeen century lackeys with the wigs, grey breeches and long   
tailed pink coats busied themselves with mopping up the water. A smaller, childlike version   
of Summer's Breeze was led away by his collar, sullenly following a brown clad pea green   
boy-elf the seize of a four year old child.   
  
Even in their frozen positions, none of the creatures seemed to have anything on their minds   
but their duties. Sarah had never re-entered the Goblin City, but what she knew of the Kings   
servants was that they were a whole lot less tidy than these minions. Stepping towards the   
little suspended dragon Sarah noted another important difference- The animals the Goblins   
used to ride were as silly as they were themselves. This infant beast was not silly or funny- it   
had a dull, trapped look in its eyes, like a beast of burden.  
  
Sarah shivered. For all its beauty, she did not like this place. It no longer felt pristine or   
beautiful- it felt barren.  
  
Music trickled down the hall from Sarah's right, an invitation to go -that- way. A clear, high   
female voice, unaccented and somewhat, what was it, artificial?  
  
"Come away oh human child  
"From the waters and the wild  
"With a fairy hand in hand  
"For the world's more full of weeping  
"Than you can understand  
  
"I -know- that poem," muttered Sarah. "And it's -to- the waters and the wild, not –  
from-!"  
  
Differences. This place was all about differences and veiled things. Things that befuddled the   
mind. Without other options, again, Sarah entered the corridor and followed the voice.  
  
About twelve yards into the corridor that seemed to go on forever, a small door on Sarah's   
right stood ajar. Notes of the gentle music lingered here, and the scent of freshly backed bread   
drifted towards her, drawing her near. She had to be strong now; Fae foods were –never- to be   
trusted.   
  
The small room seemed a square- but Sara felt more than that she actually saw that the   
walls were slightly out of alignment. Again, marble floor, marble walls- everything white and   
shining- cold as a tomb. There was a grey ornamental hearth, but Sarah doubted if a fire had   
ever burned inside. The windows were made out of the same matted crystal she had seen   
before. No paintings, no mirrors. A small delicate firewood side table decked with a breakfast   
for at least two people on silver tableware. A delicate silver teapot and the finest porcelain   
cups stood ready. There were buns with jam and honey, boiled eggs. A plate with bacon,   
another with cheese and a silver plate with something fried that smelled suspiciously of fish.  
Around the table stood a firewood couch with silver-grey plush and two accompanying chairs.   
Beautiful, spotless and somewhat boring.  
  
At the opened window stood a veiled woman dressed in a straight gown of grey chiffon. No   
ruffles, lace or embroideries. The skirt fell wide and the bodice seemed tight- but then again   
the Fae were a slender people.  
  
At Sarah's entrance the woman turned and faced the girl. Sarah stood and stared, a few   
moments longer than was polite. Realizing this, she flushed, looked down a moment, entered   
the room fully and made a sleight bow.  
  
"Your highness, I am Sarah Williams. I have been told you requested my presence."  
  
Sarah put up her most distant and haughty face- the same one she presented Jareth with while   
facing him down among the battered ruins of their old game for Toby's existence. Sarah's   
voice was firm and steady- she could do this. If she could face down a king, than facing down   
a princess should be easy, should it not?  
  
Enalkyrah gave a single nod in acknowledgement.   
  
"I trust Cheeoanchin-Syeche has told you the why of my invitation?  
  
Sarah cocked her head and put up her chin. "The dragon told me you wish to help me beat   
Jareth."  
  
The enchantress cringed.   
  
"Please- do not use the name of that murdering scoundrel in my presence!"  
  
"You really don't like him, do you?"  
  
"He banished both me and my brothers, stole me my kingdom and murdered our   
father!"  
  
Sarah swallowed hard. How she -knew- it she could not remember, but Jareth's father lived.   
She knew it with a certainty that amazed her, yet certain she was. The woman was lying to   
her. What a wonderful start of their alliance.  
  
"The Storyteller told me some of it."  
  
"John The Half-blood doesn't know all of it. My father had named me his heir. From   
that moment onwards, my -brother- used every means possible to ruin me. And so he did. You   
must realize well, young Sarah, that I loathe him. I think him twisted and ill. I stay near the   
Kingdom with hopes one day he will be beaten and the darkness driven from his soul. And we   
will be able to forgive and embrace again."  
  
Enalkyrah stared away from Sarah, again through the open window.   
  
"He was such a lovely child, my twin. Quiet yet charming. Happy and beautiful. So   
very, very beautiful. We were each other's mirror image. We were the male and female half   
of that what was destined to rule and make the Kingdom great again. I was extravert where he   
was shy. He was cautious where I was careless. Together we would have been wise. One!"  
  
The enchantress balled her fists while speaking, tensed and looked into the past with appalling   
bitterness.  
  
"Whenever I look in the mirror -his- eyes stare back at me. I cannot look upon   
myself."  
  
Sarah had to force herself to keep her arms down and not to move to make any protective   
gesture betraying a weakness. There was madness here. A quiet, restrained, terrible madness.  
  
"When you first came to the Kingdom and had beaten my brother, he seemed humbled   
for a moment. Approachable. I could almost talk to him. Almost and only for the briefest of   
moments. But the moment passed."  
  
Enalkyrah shivered at the window. Shrugged her shoulders and closed it.   
  
"He does not regard you his enemy, you are a distraction only, mere amusement. Yet   
should he be defeated by you a second time, his pride will crumble and he will withdraw from   
the world, like he did last time. Within such a depression, I might be able to be a comfort to   
him and if not me, our mother. It is a very sleight chance- but your second victory over the   
King could be the one chance to a better future for all of us."  
  
Bullshit! Sarah's mind screamed at her. Only amusement? A joke? Well, that might be true-   
But every time Jareth and she had met, there had been this element of – Well, what?   
Seriousness, certainly. And something else- something exiting. New.  
  
"Please, child, do sit down."  
  
Sarah made sure her face kept the same rather arrogant expression, hiding both her anger and   
her nervousness. She should feel rather honoured now, shouldn't she? Royalty inviting you to   
sit down? Perhaps this had become common in Europe- but the Underground was a somewhat   
medieval place. Sarah lowered her eyes, thanked her hostess and sat down on the far side of   
the couch.  
  
Enalkyrah poured herself a cup of tea, and a second cup for Sarah. Sarah thanked politely,   
took the cup in her hands but did not sip from its contents.  
  
"I thought you might be hungry, so I set up some breakfast for you."  
  
"Thank you." But Sarah touched nothing.  
  
Enalkyrah noticed without acknowledgement. Sarah could not see the face of the Fae, but she   
was almost sure Enalkyrah carried that same infuriating smirk of her brother. The Enchantress   
took her own cup behind the veil and drank. Sarah just sat there, warming her hands on the   
cup, turning it a little distracted and finally put it back on it's saucer.  
  
"Sarah, I know what you need."  
  
"Yes, Your Highness?"  
  
"Please- I regard you as a friend. My friends call me Eney. Are you my friend, Sarah?"  
  
Well, why not- Better to have this lady believe Sarah to be a friend. Friends were important.   
You could count on a friend. Sure she was a friend.  
  
"Yes of course. Thank you, Eney."  
  
"Now listen very carefully Sarah, we have not much time so I can tell you only once."  
  
Sarah nodded, realizing it had been very late last night when she had to try to stifle a yawn   
politely.  
  
"Are you listening, Sarah?"  
  
Sarah threw back her hair and smiled kindly at the enchantress.  
  
"Sure, I'm listening."  
  
"Very well. The island of the s'Quaerra dragons is a very special place, for the herbs and plants growing there. Not just anyone is allowed there. Only those who can prove they are   
pure of heart may sat foot on it."  
  
"But, how does one prove that?" Sarah asked in a small voice.  
  
"You must pay the ferryman with something straight from your heart, my dear.   
Something like this."  
  
Enalkyrah made a turning movement with her free hand and with a little flash of bright white   
light, she held a fine grey silk handkerchief. She gave it to Sarah. The girl took the   
handkerchief and opened it. It held three small tear shaped diamonds.   
  
Glittering in the diffuse light of the room, beautiful beyond description, touching Sarah in a   
way she had not held possible, the girl stared at the small stones. They were of purity beyond   
words, beyond comprehension.  
  
"Be careful, my dear- they are the last tears I have shed."  
  
"But- why?"  
  
"Why I cried them? Too long a tale."  
  
"No- why are you giving them to me? They are so beautiful."  
  
Impatiently Enalkyrah held out her hand to retrieve the stones.  
  
"Child, I am –not- giving these to you. They would not serve you. You must give the   
ferryman your own."  
  
Desperately Sarah was near tears herself now. And like a small child she complained.  
  
"But I cannot –do- that!"  
  
Condescendingly Enalkyrah nodded wile taking the silk cloth with the stones from Sarah.  
  
"I know dear. And that is where I can help. You see, I can place a spell on you, so that   
you will be able cry your own."  
  
Sarah was all smiles now and tried to stop sniffling.  
  
"You would do that? You would do that for me? Oh –thank- you, Eney!"  
  
"Yes, well- it does require something of you, my dear. You see, a spell like this takes a   
lot of strength. And I need something that is uniquely you to use in the potion I have to make   
for you."  
  
Sarah smiled happily and trustingly. Then she grinned wickedly.  
  
"Anything to beat that bastard King!"  
  
Enalkyrah stood and moved to sit next to Sarah. Again she made the movement with her hand   
this time in it appeared a pair of silver scissors.   
  
"I need you to give me one of your dark locks, child. I need you to cut it of yourself   
and give it to me."  
  
Without hesitation, Sarah did as asked, her hair growing in such abundance, the missing lock   
was not even noticeable.  
  
Enalkyrah took it and held the hair tightly for a moment before she made it disappear.  
  
"Thank you, dear child. You cannot now how much this means to me."  
  
Sarah missed the sarcasm completely. She smiled a droopy smile up at the enchantress like a   
small child that had done something well and had jus been complimented for it.  
  
"Now as I said, this spell will take a lot of my strength. To be able to do it well, I need   
some of yours."  
  
Sarah frowned. "How much?"  
  
"Not very much. Five years of your life should be enough."  
  
Sarah shrugged. It sounded perfectly logical to her.  
  
"Oh. Okay."  
  
Enalkyrah cocked her head.   
  
"Besides, if you are a little older, you will have so much more strength to fight my   
brother. Remember, it is all his fault."  
  
"Yes, " Her eyes had darkened while she hissed Enalkyrah's words with barely   
controlled anger. "It is all –his- fault."  
  
"He stole your brother."  
  
"Toby," whispered Sarah.  
  
"He caused you so many hardships."  
  
"Yes." Sarah stared at the opposite wall, sitting upright and unmoving.  
  
"He harassed the dwarf into tricking you, your first real friend here. Now that was   
cruel, was it not?"  
  
"Cruel!"  
  
"He nearly threw you in The Bog. Nearly killed you with his Goblins."  
  
Sarah's voice came small and frightened.  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Remember that ball? A seduction of a very young girl. A prelude to rape!"   
  
Sarah now shook her head, as if trying to wake up. She rubbed her eyes with her fists   
vigorously.   
  
"No- no that was not what he did. That was not what he meant."  
  
Enalkyrah's face behind the vale distorted angrily. Too strong. Whatever it was that was   
trying to fight her from within the girl, it was too strong to allow the woman-child to tumble   
and fall completely down the path of hatred towards her brother. All of a sudden her spell had   
become fragile and threatened to crack and fail while that strength pushed back. Enalkyrah   
had expected the girl not to take any of the foods she offered, and therefore had bewitched the   
porcelain teacup to make the girl susceptible to her suggestions. Enalkyrah had to remember   
that. She could trigger anger in the girl, protectiveness towards her friends and with that a   
fighters instinct- but no true revulsion or hatred towards her brother. Well- not to worry.   
Glanconer would change all that.  
  
"It is all right my dear. Just sit back and relax."  
  
Sarah nodded, eyes drooping and barely awake now. Yet still trying to shake of the effects of   
the spell placed upon her. Enalkyrah placed her hands on the shoulders of the child. She   
concentrated and drew power from the girl. Sarah's face changed, sharpened into the lines of   
a young woman rather than the round features of an adolescent. Suddenly both the witch and   
Sarah cried out, while Sarah's waist thinned, her bosom bloomed and limbs stretched. Green   
and golden sparks flew between the two women, forming a radiant globe of bright light the   
colour of Sarah's eyes encompassing them both. Suddenly Enalkyrah let go of Sarah. The   
human slithered of the couth and she fell in a formless heap on the floor, bumping the table   
and throwing half of the untouched breakfast all over the floor. Enalkyrah started to chant a   
succession of words in a tongue older than the Underground, using the power of the light,   
pushing it down into Sarah's unconscious form.  
  
Suddenly the room cleared. Breathing hard, hands on the backrest of the couch Enalkyrah   
stared at the human female. The almost black hair a vale of her own and hiding the face.   
Catching her breath, the witch snapped her fingers to perform a few more tricks. The room   
cleared itself up and Sarah was roughly pulled up the couch and in a sitting position.  
  
"There my dear. The power to cry diamonds. Judging the strength of your emotions   
towards –him-, I might even need it. And I could never have done it without you."   
  



End file.
